CORE ID is a distributed, open, and extensible naming system based on the CORE Chain. CORE ID’s job is to map human-readable names like ‘alice.core’ to machine-readable identifiers such as Core addresses, other cryptocurrency addresses, content hashes, and metadata. CORE ID also supports ‘reverse resolution’, making it possible to associate metadata such as canonical names or interface descriptions with Ethereum addresses.

CORE ID has similar goals to DNS, the Internet’s Domain Name Service, but has significantly different architecture due to the capabilities and constraints provided by the Core blockchain. Like DNS, CORE ID operates on a system of dot-separated hierarchical names called domains, with the owner of a domain having full control over subdomains.

Because of the hierarchal nature of CORE ID, anyone who owns a domain at any level may configure subdomains - for themselves or others - as desired. For instance, if Alice owns 'alice.core', she can create 'pay.alice.core' and configure it as she wishes.