Namecoin is one of the forgotten technologies that failed to latch onto bitcoin's success. A revival would need to be something really innovative but likely wouldn't come from ICANN. They might have hinted that they wouldn't interfere but such an org couldn't get involved with the promotion of a single crypto.
ICANN is an organization that decides whether you can use a particular domain, and of course they are ultimately forced to cede to the wishes of more powerful organizations, like governments, in various matters.
Namecoin is a process that allows any individual to use any available domain within its realm, without asking permission and without worrying about whether a government will seize their domain if they speak offensively regarding the interests of people who profit from a specific government.
'Reviving' seems like it should only need making .bit domains completely useable as .com .net .org etc. When I type a .bit address into my browser nothing happens. It appends 'www' automatically then says 'server not found'. It would be necessary to visit icann with a suitcase full of cash and some lawyers, and convince them to 'normalize' the .bit extension I guess. If it ever happens that .bit registered through Namecoin is accessible to everybody without having to load a blockchain or even know what Namecoin is, the way you can use a .org without knowing what icann is, Namecoin will be significant. It will change politics in many countries and more.
I'm not sure is cooperating with ICANN would be that compatible with cryptocurrenty ethics. The fact that namecoin is a peer to peer currency promotes decentralization while ICANN is an organization that centrally manages procedures behind domain approvals. I don't know how namecoin would benefit from making .bit a tld.
It'd benefit "bigly" and I mean it: A really major change. First, most users are not going to install an extension to be able to access .bit domains. It means, for now, people are not going to use .bit domains. Remember that domains are not "free" and namecoin domains are the closest to free as possible. So if browsers could access .bit domains, I'm pretty sure thousands or maybe hundreds of thousands of people will start using them.
People would start using the TLD, not necessarily Namecoin though. I don't see the necessity for a p2p currency involved if .bit became a regular TLD. Best hope for a decentralized system would be for that to actually NOT happen.
The 'currency' is not the issue.
Many people are not aware of current restrictions on the internet, some people are aware.
If you register a domain you keep that domain only at the pleasure of your government, and sometimes even foreign governments.
There have been lots of examples, very few have gotten publicity. A few years ago the U.S. government shut down some European tourist companies for competitive reasons by revoking their websites through icann, as I recall. At the time a lot of people were shocked. Today not, because you probably will not be able to find any mention of that incident online without searching a long time.
Tor is often considered a 'free speech' internet where you cannot be censored. But the truth is that there has been a lot of evidence that tor is one big censorship honeypot, in fact fully cracked from the start.
Very few people support using websites to sell drugs, hire hitmen, promote child pornography, etc. But a lot of people, generally people of little political power, support using websites to protest at a safe distance from dangerous entities. However those dangerous entities will use 'drugs, violence, predation' websites as an excuse to limit politically threatening websites.
What icann might be able to do, is provide the infrastructure to connect .bit with their internet.
You can use tor onions and imagine that "smart people are protecting your anonymity", or you can use a .bit like product and protect it yourself.
Young people should be smart and learn from history.