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The article has a few technical mistakes in it (I've found most publications do that when it comes to a technical subject I'm familiar with...), but in short Handshake is an alternative decentralized DNS root hosted on a blockchain. It aims to replace Certificate Authorities as the root of trust by pinning TLSA keys directly on the blockchain instead of relying on trusted parties for verfication.

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So it aims to replace both DNS (a way of looking up IP address for a hostname) as well as certificate authorities (a way of knowing if the SSL cert being used by your connection is 'good')?

Its an alternative DNS, with a method to use that alternative DNS as a way of authorizing ssl certs too?

That's right! Though the infrastructure for HTTPS without CAs on Handshake is still nascent (the community welcomes contributors if you're interested!). This article covers how to set up HTTPS on Handshake using DANE https://medium.com/@ca98am79/how-to-view-dane-tlsa-websites-...

Which blockchain? It's own or will they use Bitcoin's blockchain?

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