Ethereum Name Service Proposes Protocol Migration to Layer 2 to Reduce Gas Fees

Tanzeel Akhtar

Last updated:

May 29, 2024 01:11 EDT | 1 min read

Domain naming Ethereum Name Service (ENS) has proposed an ENSv2 upgrade migrating to Layer 2 to reduce gas fees and increase transaction speeds.

ENS Labs said ENSv2 will involve a “comprehensive overhaul” to Layer 2 and re-architecting ENS to include a hierarchical registry to improve management and customization of .eth domain names.

“Nameholders will have access to a unique name registry, where they will be able to manage subdomains and configure resolvers,” said Nick Johnson, the lead developer and founder of ENS Labs, in a press release.

“Name holders can customize their name’s governance, like choosing the terms for name expiration and transfer rules,” adds Johnson.

ENS was launched in 2017 and is a well-known on-chain naming tool. So far, over two million .eth names have been registered across applications, wallets, domains and browsers.

Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 4844

EIP4844, commonly called proto-danksharding, is a cheaper way for Layer 2 rollups to post transaction data to Ethereum.

“The release of EIP4844 has made Layer 2 networks based on Ethereum vastly more affordable and scalable, which was a big driving factor for ENS’s proposal,” said Eskender Abebe, head of product and strategy at ENS Labs.

“As Web3 continues to revolutionize, ENS does too, and we want to ensure we are delivering a product that has the best user experience possible,” adds Abebe.

If the ENSv2 upgrade proposal is accepted developers will benefit from the increased flexibility provided by the new registry design, and benefit from other infrastructure deployed as part of the migration.

Users will also benefit from the reduced transaction fees and increased throughput that comes from hosting their names on an L2, while still being able to choose to retain the security and availability guarantees of hosting their name on L1 if desired.

How Does the Ethereum Name Service Work?

ENS Labs maps human-readable names like ‘alice.eth’ to machine-readable identifiers such as Ethereum addresses, other cryptocurrency addresses, content hashes, metadata, and more.

ENS also supports ‘reverse resolution’, making it possible to associate metadata such as primary names or interface deions with Ethereum addresses.

The ETHRegistrarController is the main controller for the ETH Registrar and provides a straightforward registration and renewal mechanism.

When it comes to pricing structure, the ETH Registrar charges a registration fee. This is paid in ETH and is set to prevent spamming the registrar. Any protocol fees are sent to the ENS Treasury.

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