BNS is not the only naming system in wide-spread use, nor is it the only decentralized naming system that implements human-readable, globally-unique, and strongly-owned names. The following feature table describes how BNS differs from other naming systems
| Feature | BNS | ENS | DNS | Namecoin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Globally unique names | X | X | X | X |
| Human-readable names | X | X | X | X |
| Strongly-owned names | X | X | X | |
| Names are enumerable | X | X | ||
| Registration times | 1-2 hours | ~1 week | ~1 day | 1-2 hours |
| Subdomain registration times | 1 hour (instant with #750) | varies | instant | ~1 hour |
| Anyone can make a TLD/namespace | X | [1] | [1] | |
| TLD/Namespace owners get registration fees | X | X | ||
| TLD/Namespace can be seeded with initial names | X | X | ||
| Portable across blockchains | X | N/A | ||
| Off-chain names | X | N/A | ||
| Off-chain name state | X | X | N/A | |
| Name provenance | X | X | X | |
| DID support | X | |||
| Turing-complete namespace rules | X | X | ||
| Miners are rewarded for participating | [1] | N/A | X |
[1] Requires support in higher-level applications. These systems are not aware of the existence of namespaces/TLDs at the protocol level.
[2] Blockstack Core destroys the underlying blockchain token to pay for registration fees when there is no pay-to-namespace-creator address set in the name’s namespace. This has the effect of making the blockchain miners’ holdings slightly more valuable.
