• Namecoin .bit NIP-05 lands in futr (Haskell)
  • Why a Haskell port matters
  • Implementation summary
  • Try it
  • Pointers

§Namecoin .bit NIP-05 lands in futr (Haskell)

Tracking PR: https://github.com/futrnostr/futr/pull/162

futr is a Haskell desktop Nostr client. PR #162 wires optional Namecoin .bit NIP-05 verification into the existing Nip05Search path: identifiers ending in .bit (plus the bare d/<name> / id/<name> Namecoin shapes) are routed to an ElectrumX-backed resolver; everything else stays on the existing HTTPS .well-known/nostr.json path. Both branches return the same Nip05SearchResult shape, so call sites stay branch-free.

§Why a Haskell port matters

.bit ↔ Nostr is already shipping or in-review across several runtimes:

• Kotlin / Android — vitorpamplona/amethyst (canonical wire-format reference, in production).
• Swift / iOS — nostur-com/Nostur (merged); planetary-social/nos #1779 (open).
• Dart / Flutter — ethicnology/dart-nostr (merged); haorendashu/nostrmo #33, 0xchat-app/0xchat-app-main #65, ZharlieW/Aegis #14 (all open).
• TypeScript / JavaScript — nbd-wtf/nostr-tools #533, hzrd149/nostrudel #352, CodyTseng/jumble #774, dergigi/ants #281, cesardeazevedo/nosotros #205, SnowCait/nostter #2128, TsukemonoGit/lumilumi #1037, eskema/alphaama #9 (open).

A clean Haskell implementation, written against the same wire format from a referentially-transparent language, is useful evidence that the spec isn’t shaped by any one runtime’s idioms. ifa-0001 + ElectrumX scripthash + N1 NIP draft are sufficient to derive a working client; this PR is the proof.

§Implementation summary

• New module Nostr.Nip05Search.Namecoin (~626 LOC).
• One hook in Nostr.Nip05Search (single suffix-branch).
• ElectrumX JSON-RPC over TLS with sensible defaults (six servers; both :50002 SSL and bare-IP endpoints, since this is a desktop runtime — no browser-WSS restrictions).
• Parses the full ifa-0001 Domain Name Object: d/<name> and id/<name> shapes, import walking, map sub-label descent, all three nostr value forms.
• Hspec test suite (NamecoinTest.hs) covers parsing, opcode handling (both OP_NAME_FIRSTUPDATE 0x52 and OP_NAME_UPDATE 0x53 — note: some earlier reference impls only matched 0x53, which silently drops names whose only on-chain transaction is the initial FIRSTUPDATE), and end-to-end resolution against mocked ElectrumX responses.
• No new UI surfaces — existing NIP-05 indicator covers the .bit case.
• Falls back gracefully on resolver failure.

§Try it

• _@mstrofnone.bit → npub1gvv9ahktvavf9qjtrgm62le7gplmmchd5usp5wpfhr85hf79kncqj8xchs
• mstrofnone.bit → same (bare-name form)
• doesnotexist.bit → null (clean failure)

§Pointers

• N1 NIP draft (proposed): https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/pull/2349
• Canonical wire-format reference (Kotlin): vitorpamplona/amethyst/quartz/.../nip05DnsIdentifiers/namecoin/
• Test .bit records (live on the Namecoin chain): d/mstrofnone, id/mstrofnone, d/testls

Normative discussion: please use the GitHub PR thread.