Built on top of Ethereum's Blockchain, an Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domain is a customizable cryptocurrency wallet with identifiable names or numbers.
Similar to the old IP addresses from Web 2.0, which became a lot easier to navigate as domain names proliferated, ENS domains offer the promise of much easier connections between you and your customers, business partners, and so forth, all within the Ethereum blockchain.
With their extreme versatility and interoperability, ENS domains are already showing their value to ease of entry into apps and services.
The primary use of an ENS domain is to turn a long, forgettable crypto-wallet address into a human-readable name. Bear in mind that ENS names are far more than just domain names for your website, and adopting them may signal major changes in the web as a whole. For instance, an Ethereum address that holds nike.eth has amassed 131 ENS domain names, including domains sony.eth, coke.eth, strawberry.eth, and nose.eth.
Thus, the ENS provides domain name services to the Ethereum blockchain and is controlled by the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), where members participate in collective decision-making via Governance Tokens.
Additionally, ENS is capable of supporting other protocols, blockchains, and domain names, meaning that its growth is not limited to the Ethereum network.
ENS domains can be used as the user's digital identity, holding:
However, unlike typical web domains, those registered via ENS are not recognized by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, meaning that most browsers do not support this address automatically. Instead, they are used by crypto wallets, specialized websites, and browser extensions.
A domain registered via ENS is also packaged with a smart contract, giving the owner exclusive ownership of the name for a set amount of time (the group behind a domain name expires, but is available for over 100 years if you are so inclined).
Platforms such as ENS and Unstoppable Domains provide unique advantages over the traditional DNS system, conferring stronger ownership rights and being less prone to security breaches.
Whereas an ENS domain follows the name-only convention of name.eth, Unstoppable domains enable users to buy domain names that may comprise first-level domain servers, such as name.crypto, name.wallet, name.nft, name.dao, name.bitcoin, and so on.
Similar to the early web mania over Web domains, ENS names are easier to read, spell, and find. The other advantages are also apparent, in that ENS names:
Even within your own platform, ENS can be your naming convention for the internal resources that your users are managing, after all, those names are NFTs too, and this could fuel many excellent applications.
Since its launch, the ENS protocol has received almost 13000ETH in revenue, with about 2.5M in revenue coming from domain name renewals, and 10KETH coming from revenue generated by domain name registration fees. The sharp increase in Ethereum domain name registrations has led ENS to outperform ETH over the last three months by over 40%.
Once purchased and registered via the ENS core web portal, ENS domains are free to be exchanged between Ethereum wallets in a secondary market, through NFT markets like OpenSea.
