Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP)

While reform and updates of the current Whois process is largely stalled, the aforementioned "do over" is proceeding in the form of the Registration Data Access Proto‐col (RDAP).

The key differences RDAP will bring include these:

• Accessed over the web: It will function via a RESTful API, not port 43.
• Standardized output: Records will be JSON-encoded. Currently Whois output varies between Registries and even Registrars.
• Authenticated: Right now, pretty well anybody and anything can query Whois records. That leads to widespread scraping, data mining, and associated headaches, but is balanced against the transparency of anybody being able to query domain registration information. RDAP will be authenticated access, there will be some kind of framework around who can access the records and under what circumstances, as I write this, that framework is largely unknown. Various concerns enter here. As is human nature, everybody will want privacy for themselves and accountability for everyone else. Queue the policy battle-bots.

The timing of the RDAP implementation is subject to revision, but after a transition period where RDAP and Whois co-exist, as one of the technical reviewers put it "RDAP will have completely supplanted WHOIS long before there's a chance to do a second edition of this book." We'll see.