foreword
foreword
Looking back at the ICO frenzy in 2017, the pixel head Cryptopunks just debuted with the ERC721 standard, Decentraland still has a lot of land waiting for adventurers to explore, ENS just launched the first round of long domain name auction...
In the past four years, encrypted art collections and metaverses have brought cross-border and profitable narratives to NFT, while the performance of trainee ENS domain names in the secondary market during the same period was not impressive. Just as the land of Decentraland rises with the continuous enrichment of the metaverse world, the value of blockchain domain names is also subject to whether it is widely used by wallets, Dapps, and users...
(the earliest NFT project)
ENS is more than a username for Web3
ENS (Ethereum Name Service) is the Ethereum Name Service, which can provide readable name resolution services for blockchain addresses, Web3.0 storage resources, and even social information in a decentralized form. It is also the most widely integrated block Chain naming standards.
To put it simply, if the receiving address happens to use the ENS service when transferring money on the blockchain, then the 32-digit receiving address that needs to be copied and pasted can be directly replaced by the .eth domain name. Just like we no longer type in the ip address to jump to the website, ENS uses a readable domain name to facilitate the exchange of funds and the user experience of application interaction.Despite being built on Ethereum,ENS is not limited to Ethereum, but supports the resolution of multi-chain addresses.
Users can use the same ENS domain name to resolve different addresses in different chains such as BTC, ETH, LTC, etc., and send and receive various encrypted assets through the same domain name on mainstream multi-chain wallets (such as imToken). For example, bitcoin.com already supported users to deposit and withdraw BTC and BCH assets through the ENS domain name long before the ETH transaction was launched [1]. Multi-chain resolution makes the majority of Ethereum nodes become the DNS server of the blockchain universe.
(ENS can be used for multi-chain transfers)In addition to geocoding,ENS also has the function of content addressing, which resolves to websites like traditional domain names, and serves as the entrance of decentralized applications.
In September 2019, Uniswap banned users from 10 countries including Iran, Cuba, Iraq, and North Korea from accessing uniswap.exchange[2] due to policy reasons; in July 2021, Uniswap delisted more than 100 synthetic asset tokens[3] . The decentralized exchange advertised as permissionless cannot escape the iron fist attack in the traditional world, but Uniswap has already enabled uniswap.eth to resolve to the website hosted on IPFS. In the world of Web3.0, through the decentralized protocol stack 7*24 Serve every user without distinction.
(Esteroids.eth aggregates ENS-enabled Web3 applications)
After the domain name is endowed with programmability, the use case expansion of ENS is only limited by the imagination of developers. Umbra.eth developed by the Scopelift team developed an ENS-based privacy payment system using master and sub-public keys[4]; esteroids.eth listened to the newly resolved website of the ENS domain name on the chain, and presented the hao123 navigation of the decentralized website[5]; DeFi777 Allow wallets that do not support browsers to use different DeFi protocols [6].
DAO governance has not been realized, but ecology has been fed back
ENS was born out of Ethereum core development Nick's leisure project in 2017. In 2018, Nick left the Ethereum Foundation to form a full-time non-profit True Name LTD for the development and operation of ENS, and received a donation of one million dollars from the Ethereum Foundation.
When it was first launched in 2017, the .eth domain name opened the auction and registration of domain names with a length of more than 6 digits. At the same time, it adopted a free registration model, that is, users obtain the right to use the domain name by locking the ether currency. After the expiration, the ether currency will follow the domain name returned upon release. In May 2019, ENS upgraded the domain name to a token contract that conforms to the ERC721 standard, opened the auction of short domain names with 3 to 5 digits in length, and changed to a rental model at the same time. right to use.Shift from free to rent model raises speculative costs for squatters
, while bringing stable cash flow income to ENS. As of June 2021, the total income from .eth domain name registration exceeds 6,800 ETH, and the renewal income exceeds 2,400 ETH. According to the 2020 income and expenditure report, the total annual expenditure of the ENS team is about 760,000 US dollars [7]. After achieving self-sufficiency, ENS has gradually changed from being a recipient to feeding back the ecology. In June 2021, ENS announced that it would donate 180ETH to Gitcoin, becoming the largest donor of GR10[8]. The current 9-member ENS team is also recruiting development, operation and DAO governance experts to accelerate the popularization of ENS.
(Summary of ENS annual fee data)
ENS has not implemented DAO governance yet. The registration fee fund wallet is controlled by 4/7 multi-signature, and the key holders include Nick, Sergey (Chainlink founder), Dan Finlay (Metamask core development), etc. The decentralized governance of ENS faces conflicts between long-term vision and short-term interests. If decision-making power is simply allocated based on the number of domain names held, hoarding speculators can easily manipulate the governance process and initiate proposals such as reducing annual fees and rents to reduce squatting. The cost prevents the domain name from falling into the hands of the project party that actually uses it, which is not conducive to the large-scale application of ENS itself. Therefore, in the online workshop held in March, the community discussed the way of using GrantDAO to determine the income of the treasury, and experimented with the governance path of ENS [9]. ENS officials also released the recruitment of governance supervisors in July, and the advancement of DAO governance is accelerating.
(ENS possible DAO governance model)
Reverse Compatible with DNS, Exploring the New Paradigm of Web3 Login"Domain Name System (DNS) is a"Means, can make the address easier to remember. with a string of familiar letters (i.e."domain name"domain name
) to replace hard-to-remember IP addresses, thereby improving the convenience of using the Internet.
On the entire Internet, a domain name can only have one owner, otherwise there will be consensus confusion in the user network space. At present, under the coordination and organization of ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the domain name space of the Internet has formed a consensus on smooth operation. Country top-level domains such as .cn .uk and popular gTLDs such as .com and .finance are distributed by registrars to globally unique domain name services for global users.
As an innovator, what ENS actually does is to create a new top-level domain in addition to the existing naming domain consensus. Rather than creating a new domain name as a technical problem, it is more a social collaboration problem. Whether it is .eth or other competing products such as .crypto, sol, .bit, etc., the top-level domains created by blockchain domain names have not been included in the Internet domain name consensus under the management of ICANN. For example, the .ETH suffix used by ENS itself is the three-digit reserved country domain of Ethiopia [10].
If the blockchain domain name system hopes to become a user identity in the Web3 world, it will inevitably overlap with the current DNS domain name space. How to deal with the relationship with the existing domain name consensus will affect the long-term interests of domain name holders such as .eth and .crypto .
Unstoppable Domains was originally built on zil, which is similar to ENS in function and is a blockchain domain name service system operated in the form of a company under capital support. After the launch of .zil and .crypto domain names, 8 new blockchain top-level domains including .coin, .wallet, .bitcoin, and .blockchain were launched in July 2021 [11]. Creating a large number of top-level domains out of thin air is not a responsible behavior for the unified namespace, and it also violates the long-term interests of the original .crypto registrants.
The reason why Unstoppable Domains needs to continuously generate new suffixes is related to the adoption of a one-time buyout, lifetime-use registration mechanism, that is, if you do not create new suffixes to sell domain names, you cannot generate continuous income maintenance. It can also be seen from the performance of the secondary market that the transaction volume of .crypto domain names is not as active as that of mana subdomain names in the ENS ecosystem[12], and the hype space of .crypto has also been diluted due to the spam of new suffixes.
(mana.eth has higher subdomain volume than Unstoppable Domains)
After the auction of short domain names in 2020, the ENS team officially announced that they would no longer create new top-level domains [13], but chose another path of backward compatibility, gradually providing blockchain address resolution to traditional DNS domain names. Existing DNS domain names can be introduced into the ENS ecosystem through DNSSEC technology. That is, after users submit DNS domain name records such as .xyz on the DNS system, they can create a .xyz blockchain domain name in the ENS system that also has multi-chain wallet address resolution. brantly.xyz is the URL in the user's DNS world , is also the wallet address in the ENS world, and there is no annual fee rent for this process.
It is precisely because .eth adopts the annual fee registration system that ENS does not need to frequently create top-level domains to obtain cash flow, but cooperates with the DNS world as a public service to bring traditional domain names into Web3. In May 2021, the established domain name registrar UNR packaged 25 top-level domains licensed by ICANN into NFTs to provide ENS domain name mapping services for all users [14].In order to create a global consensus namespace, creators of blockchain domain names need to engage in close social collaboration with representatives and stakeholders around the world. As the motto of ICANN
: "One World, One Internet".
In addition to introducing DNS domain names into the blockchain world, ENS is also actively exploring the new paradigm of Web2 login. In July 2021, the Ethereum Foundation and ENS launched a joint request for proposals (RFP), seeking third-party teams to design a set of technical specifications for logging in to third-party web applications through Ethereum accounts [15], as well as Oauth for Web2 services. Implementation and JavaScript code library for user login. In the future, when ENS may be used to log in to Twitter, the Cryptopunk held under .eth will be automatically set as the avatar, and social relations and various public information can be automatically synchronized. In the Web3 world, accounts belong to users.
Encrypted assets.ETHThe unified naming domain isExclusive,
This is a natural fit with the differences between the tokens of non-homogeneous tokens NFT. If the spammy self-created top-level domain dilutes the value of .crypto, will ENS, which is directly compatible with the entire top-level domain, dilute the value of .ETH?
Web3.0 transfers information and value from giants to users. When registering a DNS domain name, users need to pay a qualified registrar to purchase a domain name; in the domain name transaction process in the secondary market, there is also a cumbersome application transfer process; if you encounter domain name arbitration, your domain name may also be taken back directly , DNS domain names are digital assets that are exploited layer by layer by intermediaries and centralized institutions.
The aboriginal .ETH of ENS is an encrypted asset belonging to the user. Neither the ENS team nor ICANN has the right to dispose of the ownership of any domain name. The transfer and registration of domain name assets no longer require the participation and custody of the registrar. Although the foreign account .xyz obtains an NFT that can resolve addresses through DNSSEC mapping, its ownership still follows DNS domain name.
As an encrypted asset, the .eth domain name is fully compatible with the ERC721 standard, so it can also interact with DeFi protocols, NFT applications, etc. , Govern a domain name through DAO.
(TLD Registration Ranking)
(ENS total registrations)TLD is weak, ENS is strong, and blockchain domain names will be popularized and valued with the arrival of Web3.
References:
[1]https://news.bitcoin.com/ethereum-name-service-adds-infrastructure-for-multi-currency-support/
[2]https://newsletter.thedefiant.io/p/uniswap-website-geo-ban-cant-stop-370
[3]https://cointelegraph.com/news/uniswap-delists-100-tokens-from-interface-including-options-and-indexes
[4]https://app.umbra.cash/faq#can-you-walk-me-through-an-example
[5]https://esteroids.eth.link/
[6]https://defi777.com/
[7]https://medium.com/the-ethereum-name-service/ens-finance-report-february-2021-a66b9e531727?source=user_profile---------5----------------------------
[8]https://medium.com/the-ethereum-name-service/ens-grants-round-1-180-eth-to-gitcoin-grants-780727da052c?source=user_profile---------0----------------------------
[9]https://discuss.ens.domains/t/ens-workshop-2021-1-show-tell-projects-to-present/420/11
[10]https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/cyzpxc/isicannholdingtheethtldinreservefor/
[11]https://unstoppabledomains.com/blog/100-million-airdrop-terms-and-conditions
[12]https://opensea.io/rankings?sortBy=thirtydayvolume&category=domain-names
[13]https://medium.com/the-ethereum-name-service/why-ens-doesnt-create-more-tlds-responsible-citizenship-in-the-global-namespace-7e66658fe2b1
[14]https://medium.com/the-ethereum-name-service/nfts-of-ens-tlds-to-be-auctioned-alongside-dns-versions-by-unr-9a23af828f9c
[15]https://notes.ethereum.org/@djrtwo/sign-in-with-ethereum-RFP
[16]https://mobile.twitter.com/rocketnft/status/1250536190396203013
[17]https://duneanalytics.com/makoto/ens
[18]https://dnpedia.com/tlds
