Ethereum Name Service (ENS): A Decentralized Domain System

What Is ENS? Technology for Web3

Launched in May 2017, Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is a decentralized application (dApp) that supplies Web3 usernames for the Ethereum ecosystem. With ENS, you can own and assign convenient web-ready names to wallets, websites, and more — making all of these things much more human-readable. It fulfills a similar role to the popular Web2 internet naming convention known as the Domain Name System (DNS), which enables websites to register domain names. DNS is what makes it possible to navigate to google.com without needing to know Google’s IP address. ENS functions similarly, providing .eth names to Ethereum addresses, which are a staggering 42 characters long.

While not the first naming system of its kind, ENS is by far the most popular and widely integrated blockchain naming system. By the end of 2021, it had over 600,000 names registered among more than 269,000 unique owners, with over 400 integrations for these names throughout various platforms. With hundreds of integrations, you can assign ENS names to crypto wallets from providers such as MetaMask, Gnosis, Enjin, Coinbase, BRD, Trust, and more.

ENS’ predecessor, DNS, is a centralized system that maintains a central registry of all domain names and corresponding IP addresses. In contrast, the Ethereum Name Service system is decentralized, meaning it is extremely difficult if not impossible for someone to take away another person’s ENS domain name. The role of the central registry is instead filled by trustless smart contracts.

The native suffix for the ENS system is .eth, which is a blockchain-native address with all the underlying security of the Ethereum network. That said, ENS technology also supports other common DNS names like .com, .org, .io, .app, and more — provided that the person registering the domain with ENS already owns the DNS name.

What Can You Do With an ENS Domain Name?

In addition to assigning an ENS domain name to your website or social media profile, you can also assign it to your crypto wallet and use it in place of your actual wallet address. This can save you a lot of time spent copying and pasting, and will likely reduce the risk of errors due to not checking long and complex alphanumerical cryptocurrency addresses character by character.

You can also assign multiple different types of wallet addresses to an ENS name, meaning that one easy-to-remember ENS name can be used to receive any type of cryptocurrency, token, or non-fungible token (NFT) that functions with an ENS-compatible wallet. These multi-address ENS domains work contextually. That means you could map your personal website and your Ethereum wallet to the same .eth name. So when entering your .eth name in a web browser, you’d end up at your website, but when entering your .eth name as the recipient of a crypto transfer, your wallet address would automatically be detected. In this way, ENS is capable of unifying distinct web services into a single resource.

ENS names can also be assigned to decentralized websites, like those hosted with IPFS, though doing so requires higher-than-average technical prowess. Similarly, ENS extends the capabilities of DNS and allows users to register DNS names they already own.

Say you already have a website registered to the DNS name that hosts your CV and work portfolio. You may consider linking your DNS-registered website to your ENS name if, for example, you wanted to use one simple .eth name to reference your website, wallet address, Twitter handle, and more. In other words, a .eth name can serve as a single pseudonym for your entire online presence — including the online presence that’s already built on the previous DNS system.

Registering an ENS Domain

The key differences between ENS and DNS come down to the respective architecture of the systems. With ENS, top-level domains like .eth are owned by specialized smart contracts (known as registrars). These smart contracts follow specific rules regarding their subdomains and are responsible for issuing the subdomains to new owners. In the case of .eth, the rules allow for anybody to register a .eth name provided it hasn’t already been registered by someone else. The .eth registrar smart contract has been locked, which means that no nodes in the ENS address network are capable of altering it or any .eth domains, preserving the integrity and decentralization of the system.

ENS domains are hierarchical in nature, meaning that if you own an ENS domain (let’s say example.eth, for example), you can configure subdomains such as test1.example.eth and test2.example.eth at your discretion. And when considering the contextual multi-address mapping that’s possible with ENS, subdomains become a powerful tool. You can link each subdomain to different online sources.

The pricing for registering a .eth domain is based on how many characters are in the name (not counting the ‘.eth’ portion) plus the Ethereum network gas fee. So, for example, names with five or more characters cost only $5 USD in ETH per year to register, while names with four characters cost $160 in ETH per year, and three-character names cost $640 in ETH per year. The cost of registration is the only limiting factor in preventing someone from “domain grabbing” and registering many names.

Once registered, the owner of an ENS domain name has complete control over it so long as they renew its registration before it expires. If a registration does expire, the owner will receive a 90-day grace period during which they have a chance to re-register the name without forfeiting ownership. Names can be registered for any duration, and registration years may be added at any time. ENS domains are also tradeable as ERC-721 NFTs, so their ownership can be directly transferred between peers on NFT marketplaces like OpenSea.

ENS Crypto Platform Governance via ENS Token

The root node in the ENS crypto network is operated by a multi-signature wallet that is controlled by several influential members of the Ethereum community. Only one of the keyholders, Nick Johnson, founder of ENS, is affiliated directly with the project. While these keyholders occupy a fairly hands-off role, they were initially responsible for managing the funds that users spend on registering ENS names. These funds have typically been used for funding the core ENS crypto team and ENS ecosystem projects.

However, in November 2021, Ethereum Name Service announced the launch of its decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) alongside the newly created ENS governance token. There is a total supply of 100 million ENS tokens, with an initial allocation of:

• 50% to the DAO treasury

• 25% million ENS airdropped to platform users

• 25% million ENS to core contributors

With the creation of the ENS DAO, platform registration fees have fallen under jurisdiction of the community. It is the DAO’s responsibility to fund the ongoing development of improving the ENS platform. Those who used Ethereum Name Service (in other words, owned an ENS domain name) prior to October 31, 2021 were eligible to claim ENS tokens based on the quantity and duration of their ENS registrations. Users received anywhere from 200 to 1,000 ENS tokens.

These community members were immediately tasked with voting on the proposed ENS DAO’s founding constitution as an initial set of rules. Those who don’t intend on being active participants in the decentralized governance process have been encouraged to delegate their voting power to other active members.

The ENS DAO constitution forbids infringing upon name ownership, as well as increasing platform fees without due cause. The only legitimate causes would be in the instance that fees are no longer high enough to deter malicious actors, or are insufficient to fund DAO operations. Excess funds in the ENS crypto treasury may be redirected to other public goods projects in Web3 as the ENS governance community sees fit.

In terms of decentralized naming conventions for Web3, ENS is far and away one of the most established methods. ENS does have some competitors, but they are mainly focused on replacing the old DNS mechanism altogether, whereas ENS builds upon it. The project already represents the most popular naming convention on Ethereum and Web3, and is poised to continue to grow thanks to the decentralized governance of its active community and its well established network effect.