Developer Guides

These guides are for developers looking to build apps using Handshake.

Are you looking for Handshake protocol docs? Check out hsd-dev.org

Overview

Handshake is a decentralized, permissionless naming protocol where every peer is validating and in charge of managing the root DNS naming zone with the goal of creating an alternative to existing Certificate Authorities and naming systems. Source: Handshake Whitepaper

In essence, Handshake takes a core piece of internet infrastructure, DNS's root zone file, and puts it on a blockchain. At a high level, Handshake is just decentralized DNS, but solving the CA problem and making it possible to self-custody, use, and transfer names permissionlessly in a publicly-verifiable way opens up exciting applications for developers that weren't feasible before Handshake. We document four of those applications in this guide:

Application	Description	Scenario
Traditional website	Use a Handshake name to resolve traditional websites hosted on servers or hosting providers like GitHub Pages, Heroku, and Vercel	Personal blog Existing websites Decentralized domain backup
Decentralized website	Pair Handshake with decentralized storage solutions like Skynet and IPFS to create fully decentralized websites	Personal blog Dapp frontends Static websites
Decentralized login	Allow users to securely login to your website using their Handshake names without needing to store emails or passwords	Decentralized identity Pseudonymous accounts and reputation Secure E2E encryption without safety numbers
Decentralized social application	Develop decentralized social applications that minimize centralization while avoiding the the usability issues of federated applications	Decentralized Reddit Decentralized Twitter Decentralized Tumblr

Each application section is standalone and doesn't require that you are familiar with the previous application sections. Dive into whatever interests you most!