> Also maybe of interest is that the new cdb subdomain is using pqconnect instead of dnscurve

This is not correct. There isn't a cdb subdomain because cdb.cr.yp.to doesn't have NS records, which is where DNSCurve fits in. If you have a DNSCurve resolver, then your queries for cdb.cr.yp.to will use DNSCurve and will be sent to the yp.to nameservers.

From there, if you have pqconnect, your http(s) connection to cdb.cr.yp.to will happen over pqconnect.

Maybe the confusion is because both DNSCurve and pqconnect encode pubkeys in DNS, but they do different things.

Here is DNSCurve:

  $ dig +short ns yp.to
  uz5jmyqz3gz2bhnuzg0rr0cml9u8pntyhn2jhtqn04yt3sm5h235c1.yp.to.

Here is pqconnect:

  $ dig +short cdb.cr.yp.to
  pq1htvv9k4wkfcmpx6rufjlt1qrr4mnv0dzygx5mlrjdfsxczbnzun055g15fg1.yp.to.
  131.193.32.108

Like CurveCP, pqconnect puts the pubkey into a CNAME.

RFC 1034 Domain Concepts and Facilities November 1987 [Page 8]

"A domain is identified by a domain name, and consists of that part of the domain name space that is at or below the domain name which specifies the domain. A domain is a subdomain of another domain if it is contained within that domain. This relationship can be tested by seeing if the subdomain's name ends with the containing domain's name. For example, A.B.C.D is a subdomain of B.C.D, C.D, D, and " "."

   1 cdb.cr.yp.to - regular DNS:
   124 bytes, 1+2+0+0 records, response, noerror
   query: 1 cdb.cr.yp.to
   answer: cdb.cr.yp.to 30 CNAME pq1jbw2qzb2201xj6pyx177b8frqltf7t4wdpp32fhk0w3h70uytq5020w020l0.yp.to
   answer: pq1jbw2qzb2201xj6pyx177b8frqltf7t4wdpp32fhk0w3h70uytq5020w020l0.yp.to 30 A 131.193.32.109

In the terminology of RFC1034, cdb.cr.yp.to, a CNAME, can be described as a subdomain of cr.yp.to and yp.to

(NB. The pq1 portion is not a public key, it is a hash of a server's long-term public key)

Correction: s/a CNAME/an alias/

The PQConnect documentation, specifically the document "INSTALL.md", describes the pq1 portion of the CNAME as a subdomain.

   Please update your DNS A/AAAA records for all domains on this server as follows:

   Existing record:
   Type    Name        Value
   A/AAAA  SUBDOMAIN   IP Address

   New Records:
   Type    Name        Value
   CNAME   SUBDOMAIN   pq1XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.DOMAIN.TLD
   A/AAAA  pq1XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  IP Address
   TXT    pq1XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.DOMAIN.TLD    p=42424
   TXT    ks.pq1XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.DOMAIN.TLD    ip=IP ADDRESS;p=42425"

Use of pqconnect at yp.to is probably old news but the cdb.cr.yp.to CNAME does appear to be new as of around 21 Oct

The notes on using Fil-C were submitted three days ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45765718

s/CNAME/alias/

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45663435 (discussed 11d ago)