And how the Sui naming service connects Web2 to Web3 Let's talk about domains.

In Web2, a domain name is a string of text (ending in .something) that you type in a web browser to open a web page.

In Web3, this is also a string of text (ending in .something) that represents a crypto wallet.

But these domains in Web2 and Web3 are not the same!

Web2 and Web3 domains Web2 domains In the 1980s, the first domain name was registered AND fun fact the first "cryptocurrency" was created!

Not! it wasn't bitcoin, it was something called eCash. But that's not the point.

On March 15, 1985, Symbolics.com was registered as the first ever domain name! People could now access the Symbolic website by simply typing "Symbolics.com" into their web browser.

Before Web2 domains Since this was the 80s, a limited number of people on the Internet had to enter the IP address of the website they wanted to open, for example. 35.231.210.182.

And, in principle, this is still the case.

All websites have an IP address (which you can think of as their physical address on the internet). In order to open a web page in your browser, your browser must access the server of that IP address and obtain the information found there. But IP addresses are a bunch of numbers (like 209.85.227.104) that aren't easy to remember or use.

It would be much better to just enter some text in the browser instead of these numbers. This is exactly what the domains you use every day are!

A domain name (e.g. google.com, opensea.io, Bitcoin.org) is simply a string of text that corresponds to a specific IP address. Thus, when you enter a domain name in a browser, your browser finds the IP address corresponding to that domain and fetches data from the server located at that IP address and opens a web page for you.

How does the browser know which domains correspond to which IP addresses?

This is managed by something called the Domain Name System (DNS), which you've probably heard a lot about. It's basically a phone book or an online contact list!

But in very simple terms, when you enter a domain address in your browser, DNS allows your browser (along with your operating system and several different servers) to convert the text you enter into an IP address and find the location of that IP address. And then your browser can open the web page located at this address.

Without DNS, the Internet as we know it will fall apart!!

There is a lot of complexity behind this, and if you want to know about it in detail, you will come across terms like DNS lookups, nameserver resolution, root nameservers, TLDs, domain registry, domain registrars, ICANN, etc. End of the first part.