The DNS servers shipped in home routers are usually set up as caching DNS proxies by default, and will forward queries for cache misses to the DNS resolvers or caching proxies that your ISP is running, rather than the DNS servers in home routers doing the full resolution themselves. So it’s not what I would consider “true” “local DNS”.
However, even if we did switch everyone to running their own DNS resolvers, what would happen then? Without the massive shared caching we have today, the load would significantly increase on the authorative DNS servers for each domain. Even with client local caching.
So the number of companies running their own authorative DNS servers would probably decrease — more of them would be using hosted DNS provided by a third party. A lot of companies host the authorative DNS of their domains with a third party big already. Including myself — I use Cloudflare for all my sites because of the HTTP caching and other things they offer on top of hosted DNS.
Increased load on authorative servers will likely lead to further centralization of DNS hosting with a few big providers IMO. Because even a lot companies that specialize in hosting DNS might not be able to handle the load when everyone is running their own resolver. Only the big DNS hosting companies will be able to afford it. So we end up with everyone hosting DNS with a few DNS hosting providers — Cloudflare, Amazon Route 53, etc.
So by decentralizing the DNS resolvers that clients use, you push companies to centralize the authorative DNS servers further. The net effect is that you will only have shifted where in the resolution the queries centralize.
And let’s say that this happens and Google sees the amount of queries received by 8.8.8.8 drop to near zero over night. Odds are that if Google values the data they gain from clients using these resolvers, they will make a big push to ensure that they host the DNS for as many companies as possible, so that they still end up with their hands on the query data. (And Google does value this data — otherwise they wouldn’t still be offering public DNS query servers.)
And also, what about the root servers? Will they be able to handle the massive increase in load? And won’t the root server traffic be subject to surveillance by state actors wanting to know what sites someone is browsing?
DNS is kind of funny because in a way it is both centralized and decentralized at the same time. But if you want the web to be truly decentralized I believe for the reasons stated above that having people run their own DNS resolvers is not part of the solution.
You are going to have to replace DNS altogether. Realistically I don’t think DNS is going away anytime soon. The web and the internet in general is too reliant on it. But I really wish we could.
However, even if we did switch everyone to running their own DNS resolvers, what would happen then? Without the massive shared caching we have today, the load would significantly increase on the authorative DNS servers for each domain. Even with client local caching.
So the number of companies running their own authorative DNS servers would probably decrease — more of them would be using hosted DNS provided by a third party. A lot of companies host the authorative DNS of their domains with a third party big already. Including myself — I use Cloudflare for all my sites because of the HTTP caching and other things they offer on top of hosted DNS.
Increased load on authorative servers will likely lead to further centralization of DNS hosting with a few big providers IMO. Because even a lot companies that specialize in hosting DNS might not be able to handle the load when everyone is running their own resolver. Only the big DNS hosting companies will be able to afford it. So we end up with everyone hosting DNS with a few DNS hosting providers — Cloudflare, Amazon Route 53, etc.
So by decentralizing the DNS resolvers that clients use, you push companies to centralize the authorative DNS servers further. The net effect is that you will only have shifted where in the resolution the queries centralize.
And let’s say that this happens and Google sees the amount of queries received by 8.8.8.8 drop to near zero over night. Odds are that if Google values the data they gain from clients using these resolvers, they will make a big push to ensure that they host the DNS for as many companies as possible, so that they still end up with their hands on the query data. (And Google does value this data — otherwise they wouldn’t still be offering public DNS query servers.)
And also, what about the root servers? Will they be able to handle the massive increase in load? And won’t the root server traffic be subject to surveillance by state actors wanting to know what sites someone is browsing?
DNS is kind of funny because in a way it is both centralized and decentralized at the same time. But if you want the web to be truly decentralized I believe for the reasons stated above that having people run their own DNS resolvers is not part of the solution.
You are going to have to replace DNS altogether. Realistically I don’t think DNS is going away anytime soon. The web and the internet in general is too reliant on it. But I really wish we could.