Sovereign names on Bitcoin
Open Name Tags is a neutral naming protocol anchored to Bitcoin. No registrar, no token, no rent, no gatekeeper — you hold the keys, and Bitcoin settles who owns what. The consensus core is small and auditable (launch parameters are still being finalized), and anyone can run the infrastructure. You use it from the app; this site just explains it and lets you verify it yourself.
See it live
Look up any name on the live chain — whether it's claimable or already owned, and who owns it.
Follow one name from a Bitcoin-secured claim to the destinations apps can use.
01
Bitcoin
Claim alice for a small fixed fee, then a public notice window opens. If no one contests it, it's simply yours; if someone else claims it too, the name goes to whoever locks the largest returnable bond. Either way Bitcoin records that an owner key controls it.
namealice
claimuncontested
owner8f3c...12ab
cost₿1,000 (~$1)
02
Resolver
The owner signs the current destinations for alice. Resolvers store that signed record.
btcbc1qxy...0wlh
lightninglno1q...9sa
emailalice@example.com
websitealice.example
03
Client
Clients check Bitcoin ownership, verify the owner signature, and use the destination type they understand.
alice
resolves towebsite -> alice.example
A name is a sovereign possession, not a subscription. Three properties make that true — and keep it true.
Self-custody
Your owner key controls the name and signs every change. It is generated on your device and never leaves it. No one — not us, not an operator, not Apple — can move, rename, or seize your name. Only your key can.
No gatekeeper
There is no company that grants names and no token you must hold. A name opens at a flat ₿1,000 (~$1) claim; Bitcoin records who owns it. opennametags.org is just one optional window onto that — it can't approve, censor, or charge you.
Frozen + auditable
The protocol is a small, fixed consensus artifact — not a SaaS that changes under you. The rules are auditable, anyone can run a resolver or publisher, and you can verify every claim against Bitcoin yourself. You never have to trust us.
Day-to-day, ONT lives in the app: claim a name, set what it points to, set a recovery wallet, and bid — all signed on your device.
Owner + funding keys are generated and stored on-device (iOS Keychain), revealed only for your own backup. Every record is BIP340-signed and checked locally, and the app re-derives state from the data instead of trusting a server's word. (Full light-client inclusion-proof checking against Bitcoin's headers is being wired up — producers don't emit those proofs yet.)
The app currently runs against a private signet so anyone can exercise the full lifecycle with no real funds. A TestFlight build for the signet test group is next; mainnet is a later, deliberate step.
Prefer no install?
Sovereignty means you can check everything without permission. Nothing here asks you to take our word for it.
A resolver returns an inclusion proof for a name; you verify it against the anchored accumulator root, and check the owner's signature on the current record. The browser tools do this locally — no install, no account, no trust in this site.
The resolver, publisher, and esplora shim are open and reproducible. Run your own and point the app or tools at it; the protocol doesn't depend on opennametags.org.
Read the source