Punycode
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Punycode, defined in RFC 3492, is a self-proclaimed "bootstring encoding" of Unicode strings into the limited character set supported by DNS. The encoding can be used to implement Internationalized Domain Names in all languages supported by Unicode, since the burden of translation is shifted from the worldwide DNS system to the user's browser. For example, the domain bücher.ch would be represented as xn--bcher-kva.ch in Punycode.
Punycode has been adopted by the national registrars of Germany, Austria and Switzerland starting on March 1st, 2004.