Handshake is a permissionless and decentralized naming protocol that enables people to agree on names and cryptographic keys of networks. The official website of Handshake claims that names on the internet rely on centralized actors with complete control over a system. This makes the system vulnerable to hacking, corruption, and censorship. Therefore, Handshake aims to establish new ways of validating the peer-to-peer systems by the network's participants making the internet more resilient, secure, and socially beneficial.  

Internet services have become more centralized and do not fulfill the original decentralized vision of the internet. Centralization of the internet services became essential to manage Sybil attacks and spam. Sybil attacks refer to a security threat on an online system, whereby individuals take control of a network by creating several accounts, computers, or nodes. However, to prevent the loopholes of centralization, internet services can prevent Sybil attacks if built on a decentralized system. A decentralized system eliminates the presence of a singular entity for permanent unitary control of the protocol. 

Handshake enables participation in a decentralized open naming platform secured by a decentralized peer-to-peer network. The platform utilizes a coin system for name registration. Handshake coin (HNS) is the native token of the platform. Through HNS, participants transfer, register, and update names on the internet. The Handshake community places auctions and bids top-level domains through HNS. 

Handshake allocates the maximum initial coins to the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) community without any attached obligation. FOSS refers to free and open software that allows users and programmers to modify, edit, or re-use the software's source code. The incentive design of Handshake relies on Metcalfe’s Law. Metcalfe’s Law states that an increase in the network's user base is directly proportional to the value of the network. Therefore, the value of Handshake is derived from the network of users.