This seems like a good use-case for a distributed whois proxy... I wouldn't mind running a node for a few weeks to help NameCheap get through the backlog, especially if it helps liberates my couple of domains that are currently held hostage...
This sounds like a good idea, although the registrars would need to know that there are additional whois mirrors available and start using them, however there are other issues to consider:
* Registrars would have to trust that the data in the mirror has not been tampered with. I think there is an assumption that a whois server name that is provided through the registry whois server is going to be correct.
* Mirrors would still need to rate limit to cause problems for spammers who are harvesting email addresses, or they'd have to whitelist registrars.
The Whois protocol was a decent idea...15 years ago. What we need now is a better way of verifying domain ownership.
