Have you seen anyone use the ".eth" Ethereum wallet address instead of the regular long string of numbers and letters? OK, my friend, this is an ENS domain. What does
ENS stand for?
ENS represents the Ethereum name service.
What is the ENS domain?
ENS is a protocol on the Ethereum blockchain that shortens a long encrypted address to a short, human-readable URL.
new address consists of a prefix and a suffix. The prefix can be anything you like! Whether it's your name, your company brand, or just a stupid word - it's up to you. The native suffix of ENS is ".eth". However, they also support regular DNS suffixes, such as *.com, .org and .xyz*.
domain is stored on the blockchain as a domain. This means it has to be minted by someone and can then be traded on the OpenSea[1], etc. NFT market.
When purchasing or minting a domain name, you must set a "registration period". This is basically the time when you have the domain. Through the ENS application [2], this starts from 1 year and can be done as you like.
What can you do with them?
The main reasons why you buy the ENS domain name are two.
The first, we have discussed, is to replace your long encrypted wallet address.
Alternatively, you can host a decentralized website using your ENS domain. Due to their decentralized nature, they will be " censorship-resistant [3]".
If you are interested in how to do this, ENS developer @makoto_inoue[4] posted a Medium post to explain [5].
After having ENS, you can also create subdomains. For example, if you have "hashnode.eth", you can create a subdomain of "web3.hashnode.eth". With this you can create a subdomain for yourself or assign ownership to others. You are free to do what you like to them.
Finally, like a lot of things in the encryption field, it can become an investment tool. People in the ENS community believe that these domains will play a huge role in the future of the Internet. Therefore, they are buying high-quality domain name for sale at a high price [6]. Is there any name I can't use in
?
is not the case, there is no limit to the content that can be registered. This includes foreign characters (e.g. n), symbols (e.g. ☺), and offensive terms. However, there is a character minimum (3) and maximum (255). How does the
ENS domain work?
ENS is built on top of two components: the registry and the parser - they are two independent smart contracts.
registry records all registered domains; as well as the domain owner, domain parser and cache survival time [7] (time before the domain expires). The job of this component is to log all ENS domains.
parser translates the domain name. This is either from human-readable URLs to long strings or the other way around. Anyone who executes the ENS standard can act as a parser for the protocol. Pairing a domain with its users is the job of this component.
parsing the ENS domain requires two steps:
- . Ask the registry which parser is responsible for the ENS domain.
- . Request an address from the parser to parse the domain and process the transaction.
Graphics showing the information flow between "user code", "ENS registry" and "resolver". The user code asks the ENS registry for the address of the resolver, and the user code asks the resolver for the original address.
Source: ENS Document [8].How to buy ENS domain name?
Go to app.ens.domains[9], connect to your wallet, and enter the domain name you want.
Next, select your registration period and click the "Request Registration" button. You will then be asked to confirm your transaction.
After processing the transaction, you will have to wait for about a minute before the "Register" button is available. Click on it, confirm the second transaction, and wait for it to be processed.
How do I set it to my main ENS name?
You should see "Main ENS Name (Reverse Record): Not Set". Click the drop-down menu, select your ENS name, and then click Save.
If “Primary ENS Name (reverse record): [YOUR ENS NAME]” is displayed, please skip the previous step.
You have now purchased your ENS domain name and set it as your primary ENS name, which means, it will represent your wallet address. For an example, see the left side of the ENS Domain Application screen.
ENS domain and DNS domain
What is the difference between this and the traditional domain name system (DNS)[10] domain?
DNS Converts the IP address to a human-readable URL. The key difference here is that ENS converts Ethereum addresses into human-readable URLs. They all play similar roles, only in different generations of networks.
In theory, the DNS domain is not as secure as the ENS domain. This is because DNS's centralized servers are more likely to be targeted than ENS's decentralized nature. The
DNS domain is also subject to the trademark method . This means that if you own Coinbase.com[11] (before Coinbase owns it), the company may take legal action against you.
We haven't seen this enforced in the ENS space, but due to its design it can be difficult to enforce. This is because the domain owner may be anonymous and there is no centralized company that controls the domain. How would you enforce trademark law if you can’t find the owner and you can’t let the company replace them?
This is good for investors, but it is bad for companies that want to enter the field. Investors have the opportunity to make a lot of money from companies that want to create an ENS decentralized website or wallet address.
ENS Web3 Alternative to the domain
ENS has a major competitor - Unstoppable Domains
Unstoppable Domains
Unstoppable Domains is another encryption naming service. They provide suffixes such as *.crypto, .nft and .bitcoin*.
is different from ENS and there is no renewal fee. Once you buy it, you have it for life. They also support multiple chains outside Ethereum—for example, uses the Cardano blockchain [12], which uses the Yoroi wallet.
In addition, they allow you to rename your wallet address and host your decentralized website. The main difference between the unstoppable domain of
and the ENS domain
is that ENS requires a registration period, and Unstoppable Domains allows you to have that address forever after a one-time payment.
Due to brand protection, Unstoppable Domains also retains some domain names. Regarding this topic, Unstoppable Domains says [13], “In order to get the next 1 billion users to join the cryptocurrency, we need to join the existing Internet community. Over the past 25 years, companies have invested a lot of resources to build online brands. We hope these businesses can embrace and adopt the blockchain space.” This is not the case with the
ENS domain; you can buy any domain name without the permission of ENS or any company.
When ENS's operations director Brantly Millegan[14] was asked about the difference between the two projects, he said [15]: "ENS is an open public protocol developed by a nonprofit without investors, has a support base of EIP and Ethereum, has more features, and is adopted by a wide range of industries. UD is a private copy with a corporate gatekeeper with fewer features (they just copy ENS), and has a much lower adoption rate.
reference link
[1] OpenSea: https://opensea.io/collection/ens
[2] ENS application: https://app.ens.domains/
[3] Anti-censorship: https://ens.domains/
[4] @makoto_inoue: https://twitter.com/makoto_inoue
[5] A Medium post to explain: https://medium.com/the-ethereum-name-service/cloudflare-and-fleek-make-ens-ipfs-site-deployment-as-easy-as-ever-262c990a7514
[6] High-quality domain names are for sale at high prices: https://blog.hedgehog.app/why-this-ens-og-turned-down-a-1-million-bid/
[7] Cache survival time: https://www.imperva.com/learn/performance/time-to-live-ttl/
[8] ENS Documentation: https://docs.ens.domains/
[9] app.ens.domains: http://app.ens.domains/
[10] Domain Name System (DNS): https://www.cloudflare.com/en-gb/learning/dns/what-is-dns/
[11] Coinbase.com: http://coinbase.com/
[12] Cardano blockchain using Yoroi wallet: https://unstoppabledomains.com/blog/unstoppable-domains-cardano
[13] Unstoppable Domains https://unstoppabledomains.com/blog/protected-brands-policy-sunrise
[14] Brantly Millegan: https://twitter.com/brantlymillegan
[15] He said: https://www.reddit.com/r/ENSMarket/comments/qd0jkl/comment/hhrzkz5/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
