How to use Namecoin explorer to upgrade links to IPFS

DesktopCommando
5 min readSep 19, 2021

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This is a guide to help you secure additional links to your Namecoin asset, as having a single point of reference may not help, if that database URL is broken in time.

An overview of Namecoin explorer using “Blockheads”

Blockheads are made from this website application

u/poon was first registered on the 25th July 2014, by twitter user “nikpoon”

He then added information to the dataset on Namecoin showing his Blockhead.

https://www.namebrow.se/name/u/poon/
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1255519882/8bit_avatar.jpg

He may have used a different username when registering the image on EightBit.Me, however the link still works.

On emblem.finance ‘s vault simulator the image shows up like this

https://emblem.finance/simulator?nmc=N256R5xUypRxsasnsDcSsCTos8D4rBrWcw

Researching and repairing dead links

These Blockhead’s where found but unfortunately with a dead link to the avatar image, i/vijay-1 as well as u/vijay (they link to each other on the 28th Oct 2014)

pbs/twimg.com is the avatar images on Twitter

https://www.namebrow.se/name/i/vijay-1/
https://www.namebrow.se/name/u/vijay/
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1770423339/vijay-eightbitme-large.png

However as seen by the file name points to EightBit.Me

copying the name ‘vijay’ and adding it to the end of the URL did not bring any results , but using the twitter username on u/vijay did.

http://eightbit.me/vijayssundaram

that does not prove however that that image from the EightBit.Me app was the one that was linked on the 13th March 2014.

Going to the twitter user “vijayssundaram” shows the following

https://twitter.com/vijayssundaram

But again this twitter avatar could have been updated at any time.

so how do you provide proof of past internet activity — Enter the ‘Wayback Machine’

How to find things otherwise deleted/updated on a website.

Copying in the twitter address and looking at the various snap shots shows the blockhead on the twitter account prior (31st Jan 2014) to the date both created on Namecoin.

https://web.archive.org/web/20140131074751/https://twitter.com/vijayssundaram
https://web.archive.org/web/20140930005808/https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1770423339/vijay-eightbitme-large_normal.png

Upgrading deadlinks with proof

As long as you own the namespace you can update it on ‘Electrum-NMC’ wallet

(I don’t own these two so I will just make a new one to show for reference)

Making a EightBit.Me image and saving it to my harddrive

http://eightbit.me/DesktopCommando

Get a free IPFS account here;

https://www.pinata.cloud

Upload your saved image to the application and name it as you want

Click the file name and copy the weblink

https://gateway.pinata.cloud/ipfs/QmP8UxBQobA1n2AXf67Sy2RGPu7fniTTgHprXxTYU3KXcy

Then add the information you want to into the dataset box on ‘Electrum-NMC’

{“bio”: “”, “name”: {“formatted”: “desktopcommando”}, “twitter”: {“username”: “desktopcommando”}, “cover”: {“url”:”https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1318139389604671490/ZdCDc4oP_400x400.jpg"}, “bitcoin”: {}, “location”: {“formatted”: “UK”}, “v”: “0.2”, “avatar”: {“url”: “https://gateway.pinata.cloud/ipfs/QmP8UxBQobA1n2AXf67Sy2RGPu7fniTTgHprXxTYU3KXcy"}}

Make it how you want to (as a fresh namecoin NFT) Ive included my twitter account image as it currently is, but included my Blockhead image for my NFT avatar image. (this doesn't validate it as the earlier collection — just something for me).

So back to the dead links, show on the real ‘Blockheads’ explorer how you came to the results you found, use screen shots and upload to IPFS if you must, take them through a detailed story, how you found and proved that you recovered the actual images. — Remember its recorded on the blockchain, so you cant manipulate it.

I have a good link so do I need to use IPFS ?

This is the question you need to ask yourself, as seen above the link was dead — this could be from a number of reasons including server crashes or deleted accounts, with IPFS, its up there permanently secured on the blockchain, it will not be deleted. so get a screen shot of the good link with the image and upload it to IPFS, then get the actual image from the original link and upload that to IPFS, explain why you did it showing the examples, and set the new IPFS (original link image) as the avatar image file.

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Circuits of Value Official Telegram room : https://t.me/Coval_Chat

Circuits of Value web page : https://circuitsofvalue.com

EmblemVault application : https://emblem.finance/create

Tokenomics : https://medium.com/@emblem_vault/circuits-of-value-tokenomics-9a0f5d72789b

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