In practiceChange the rules
NRS — Should a network depend on an institution it cannot leave?
A working network needs reliable address records. Lu Heng argues that the people maintaining those records must be replaceable. NRS advocates for that change.
From the Notes
“Decentralization is not about destroying institutions. It is about removing single points of failure.”
The network works. Its administrator may not.
Every time you open a website or send a message, networks use IP addresses to carry the data to its destination. Registries help keep those addresses unique and record who holds them. That coordination matters to everyone who depends on the internet.
But what happens when a network is working and the institution maintaining its records is caught in a dispute, stops functioning or changes the conditions for recognising those records? The operator's equipment and customers have not disappeared. Yet a decision elsewhere can put its continuity at risk.
Keeping the records does not mean governing the world.
Lu Heng draws a boundary: coordinating unique numbers is a technical task. It does not give an administrator a mandate to speak for a continent, own its addresses or decide how every network should do business.
For him, changing the people in charge leaves the central problem untouched if the institution itself cannot be replaced. The test is whether a network can keep operating when its relationship with that institution breaks down.
Keep the records dependable. Make the administrator replaceable.
In Note 37, Lu Heng sets out the direction NRS advocates. Three changes make the idea concrete:
- A right to leave: a network must have a way out of a failing institution.
- Portability: leaving must not mean losing the address resources on which its operations depend.
- Replacement and redundancy: another provider must be able to take over coordination, without creating duplicate claims to the same addresses.
The aim is one connected internet whose continuity does not rest on trust in one irreplaceable organisation. Note 72 develops the rights and limits that would make such coordination accountable.
Why NRS exists — and why the work starts now.
The Number Resource Society brings this argument into public advocacy, evidence and collective action. It works on number-resource governance and representation for operators. The decentralised system is the change it is pushing for; NRS's present role is to build the case and the support for it.
An exit that exists only on paper will not help a network in a crisis. Records, replacement arrangements and recognition by other networks need to be worked out beforehand. Waiting for institutional failure makes the transition harder for everyone already relying on the system.
This is why Lu Heng treats decentralisation as a question of survival for infrastructure. Start with his argument for NRS, then follow the rights it leads to.