Having dipped my toe in, I'm going to bow out of this debate after two comments: First, by making the IP address of the root server part of the name, you have merely moved the problem, and not created "multiple roots". The root is now the routing system, with all of its assorted warts. Worse... >> The way things work today, there isn't one single >>address for the IANA root. > > > which supports my point. One IP address, one point of failure within the topology, unless you can play games with anycast. Is that what you're proposing? Eliot