Back to all glossary terms

Root Zone (Root Servers)

The top of the DNS hierarchy, listing every TLD and the servers authoritative for it.

NTNamefi TeamAuthorVZVictor ZhouEditorJune 22, 2026
  • glossary

The root zone is the very top of the DNS hierarchy — the master list of every TLD and which registry servers are authoritative for it. It is served by the root servers, a globally distributed set of systems reached at thirteen named addresses, and the zone's contents are maintained through IANA. Every domain lookup that isn't already cached starts here: a resolver asks the root where to find .com, then follows the chain down.

Related keywords

  • root servers
  • DNS hierarchy
  • TLD delegation
  • IANA
  • Root Zone
  • what is Root Zone
  • Root Zone meaning
  • Root Zone definition

Contributors

Namefi Team

Namefi Team • Namefi
Author

Namefi is a collective of engineers, designers, and operators who obsess over building tools that make managing your onchain domain names effortless.

LinkedInTwitter

Victor Zhou

Founder & Standards Editor • Namefi
Editor

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.

WebsiteBlogGitHubLinkedIn