IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority)
The function that maintains the DNS root zone and allocates IP address blocks and protocol numbers.
- glossary
IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) is the function — operated under ICANN — that maintains the global pools the internet depends on: the DNS root zone, the allocation of IP address blocks to regional registries, and the registry of protocol numbers. When a new TLD is delegated, it is IANA that records which registry operates it in the root database. IANA sits above the day-to-day domain market — it doesn't sell names — but everything a registrar or registrant does ultimately resolves through the root data IANA publishes.
Related keywords
- IANA
- root zone
- IP allocation
- protocol numbers
- ICANN
Contributors
Namefi is a collective of engineers, designers, and operators who obsess over building tools that make managing your onchain domain names effortless.
Victor Zhou is a technology founder and standards editor focused on digital identity and trust. He founded Namefi, edits Ethereum Improvement Proposals, and previously led smart-contract architecture work at Google Labs.
His work sits at the intersection of naming, ownership, and the systems people use to establish identity online. That perspective makes him especially interested in the way names move between personal meaning, public recognition, and digital infrastructure.
For Namefi, Victor edits and writes about domains as durable digital identity: how names become ownable onchain assets, how tokenization changes custody and trust, and what naming can learn from the systems people use to establish identity online.