The problem I've got with any signed, cryptographically secure replacement for DNS (including a blockchain-backed solution) is that over time names will be lost. Just like bitcoins get lost.

You need some kind of "admin access" for the system that can fix things like lost keys, at which point you might as well stick with DNS.

It is not always about what something is not doing, but rather the unintended (often malicious) use cases it enables without any way to prevent or mitigate.

I was going to argue that remembering "CorrectBatteryHorseStaple.com" is leagues easier than remembering an 128 bit number, but then I did the math and using the 20k most common english words to encode 128bits you'd need an 8 word phrase, which pretty much solidifies the point you've made.

I mean, people can recite poetry far longer, even nonsense poetry ("Twas brillig, and the slithy toves / did gyre and gimble in the wabe") so it's not impossible. But generally speaking, yeah. Nobody wants to navigate to that bit of jabberwocky instead of google.com

It does kind of make me long for the days of the HOSTS file, where anyone might alias a hard-to-remember address as something locally meaningful.