Why not just use HTTP URIs?
Note: this question is also answered in Section 1 where the motivations for XRI are discussed. First, with the XRI Resolution 2.0 specification, there is now a defined HTTP URI format in which all XRIs can be expressed. So in essence, XRIs can be treated entirely as HTTP URIs for the purpose of backwards compatability with HTTP infrastructure. Second, XRI Resolution 2.0, Section 6, defines how the XRDS discovery protocol can be used with conventional HTTP(S) URIs. So this is another area of compatability with URLs. From a broader perspective, the reason HTTP URI syntax itself was not used for XRIs is that it does not fulfill several of the key requirements for abstract structured identifiers. Specifically: • HTTP URIs are bound to a specific transport protocol. A fully abstract identifier scheme needs to be independent of any specific transport or access protocol. • HTTP URIs do not support sharing structured, “tagged” identifiers across contexts. A fully abstract identifier scheme wil
