@Starsoccer asks on slack:
Does onename’s api official support blockstack? Just looking to use blockstack identities to a degree and was considering just using the onename api.
Onename is a web app built on top of Blockstack. Names on Onename are Blockstack IDs in the .id name space
If the Onename API provides what you need, you could use that API and you would be using Blockstack IDs.
I’d recommend running a Blockstack Core server directly. Onename’s API will be deprecated over time. It is an API around Blockstack functions and Blockstack is getting its own REST API. The new REST API will be similar to the Onename API with added functionality.
Are there any alternatives to running a Blockstack core server? Just I do not intend to register any data and simply want to be able to do look ups, and running a full node to do so, is a lot of overhead.
@Starsoccer In the short term you can use the API but just be prepared to upgrade when we release the new REST API for all Blockstack Core servers. When this comes out we will host an API that calls to our own fleet of Blockstack Core servers, and the documentation and interface will be based off of what you see at https://api.onename.com. We will still encourage people to host their own nodes / API servers but we do want to make it easy for developers to get started. You can already deploy a Blockstack Core node in one click on Azure and we’re working on making this available for Amazon and eventually Digital Ocean.