Handshake is an experiment on collaborating to create a decentralized network which results in a global allocation of names. Think of the handles or usernames you use on services such as social networks, and domain names identifying the URI for websites. Nearly all of these services were provided by trusted third parties which prevent the web from truly being decentralized. Handshake provides a means, including key management and server/service authentication, for decentralized web services to experiment. The Internet currently relies upon a single trust root DNS zone and an amalgamation of private companies providing trusted Certificate Authorities to secure the internet, Handshake is an experiment and exploration in alternatives. By providing a way to do decentralized lookup of name records, one can produce hashes and keys to identify resources over decentralized networks without a trusted Certificate Authority corporation.