Feature comparison

Feature	hosts.txt	GNS	I2P-customized GNS
Authoritative namespace	.i2p	.gns	.i2p
Globally-unique domain names	No, use .b32.i2p service address	Partial, use PUBLICKEY.zkey to reach unique domain zone
Remote lookup	Jump servers	DHT
Anybody can supply address	Address helper link	gnunet://gns/PUBLICKEY/NICKNAME - PUBLICKEY.zkey becomes NICKNAME.gnu
Zone transfer	Multiple subscriptions	Add zones of multiple registrars to local zone, access but no lookup
Partial zone transfer	Fetch recent addresses via shell scripts / last-mod / etag	N/A, active zones always reachable in the DHT
Explicit trust	Trust registrars by subscribing, trust individual sites by manually adding	Trust any zone (registrar or individual) by adding to local zone
Conflict resolution	FCFS when merging in a subscription	Whatever user wants for their local zone (they are only adding individual records), FCFS for .short.gnu
Persistence	Full (complete local storage of subscribed registrar lists)	Partial (only cache locally what the user requests)
Aliases	Via manual addressbook entries only	Completely configurable (automatic .short.gnu aliases, plus whatever the user configures in their local zone)
Publishing	Publish your addressbook via hosts.txt	Records in your zone marked public are automatically pubished to the DHT, anyone can add your .zkey (if they know it) and use your zone
Flat namespace	Yes	No	Maybe, if user adds every zone they find to their local zone
Static global namespace	Yes (addresses included at install)	pin.gnu added by default	Possible (have some addresses added by default to local zone, or have a 'static' zone added by default)
De-facto global namespace	Yes with recommended setup (subscriptions)	Yes via pin.gnu	Yes with recommended setup (trust a registrar zone), but not flat
Multiple local address books	Yes (private/public)	Yes (private/public in a zone, can have multiple zones)
Subdomain enforcement	Only by registrars	By design (but the subdomain order depends on the trust chain)
Signed entries	No	Yes
Revocation	No (without modifying the hosts.txt format)	Yes
Multiple record types	No	Yes (all standard DNS types, plus GNS-specific)	Yes (←-, plus I2P-specific)
Removal / expiration	No	Yes (expiration times for each record like DNS), but can set to FOREVER