Carefully! Lots of text.

Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is a naming service for wallet addresses, hashes, and other machine identifiers. It turns massive strings of data into easy-to-read addresses and works similarly to the Domain Name System (DNS) used for websites.

ENS initially offered popular domain names of six, five, four and three letters in a Vickrey format auction to interested users. Each name has .eth at the end and can be attached to multiple cryptocurrency addresses, hashes, and any other information.

Now you can easily buy names without an auction and rent them for several years. Prices will depend on the length of the name you want to rent. Additionally, if you owned an ENS domain on October 31, 2021, you will be able to receive $ENS governance tokens for free. You have until May 4, 2022 to request them.

Introduction

One of the challenges in blockchain development is to improve usability and accessibility. If we look at payments using Ethereum (ETH) or Bitcoin (BTC), we will understand that even experienced users, and even more so beginners, will find it extremely difficult to work with long wallet addresses. Hexadecimal strings of numbers are fine for computers to read, but they are completely inconvenient for users. Ethereum Name Service (ENS) solves this problem by allowing anyone to create short, website-style addresses that are easier to read and remember.

What is Ethereum Name Service?

Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is an Ethereum-based project launched on May 4, 2017 by Alex Van de Sande and Nick Johnson of the Ethereum Foundation. The project allows you to display long public Ethereum addresses in convenient text form. This makes it easier to share, use and remember addresses and other data. Turning machine-readable sets of numbers, such as 0xAb5801a7D398351b8bE11C439e05C5B3259aeC9B, into human-readable alternatives is an important part of blockchain adoption.

ENS is not limited to just wallet addresses. It can be used to transform transaction IDs, hashes, and metadata commonly found in the cryptocurrency world. You may already be familiar with the Domain Name System (DNS), a naming system that acts like a phone book on the Internet. DNS takes clunky IP addresses and attaches them to a convenient URL like https://academy.binance.com. Essentially, ENS is the DNS for the Ethereum blockchain.

ENS has launched a governance token as part of the transition to a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Thanks to a significant increase in the value of the token, the project began to gain momentum and arouse great interest.

How does Ethereum Name Service work?

The ENS domain name uses ERC-721 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to represent a unique address. This domain can be transferred or sold as an NFT to anyone. Wallet addresses and other information are attached to each token that the owner controls. A top-level domain such as .eth is owned by a smart contract called a registrar, which controls the creation of subdomains. That is, in order to create BinanceAcademy.eth, you will need to interact with the .eth registrar.

To purchase an Ethereum domain name, check availability and rent for a year. Popular names were bought out at the very beginning. The highest bidder who won the domain could attach addresses, create subdomains, and rent or sell their domain name. For example, if you own BinanceAcademy.eth, you can create learn.BinanceAcademy.eth for free.

What can you do with ENS

If you've ever been confused by massive addresses when sending cryptocurrency, then you understand the need for ENS. Just like you store your friends' phone numbers under their names, ENS allows you to turn long strings of numbers into easy-to-read words, making your work much easier and reducing the chance of error.

The owner of an ENS domain can also create subdomains for other data. This does not have to be a wallet address. You can use it to navigate to a smart contract, transaction, or metadata.

How to get your own ENS domain

Today, getting an ENS name is very simple - you just need to check its availability on https://app.ens.domains/ and register it. Let's look at an example of how to do this. First of all, go to https://app.ens.domains/, connect your wallet and enter the domain you are interested in.

You will see if the selected name is available. In our case, BinanceAcademy can be registered.

Click on the name and you will see instructions for registering an ENS domain. You will be able to select the registration period and also see the approximate cost. If you have Ether (ETH) in your wallet, you will be able to follow these three steps and request address registration.

In the early days of ENS, popular names of six, five, four and three letters were sold at Vickrey auctions. The smart contract completed this process within five days. Anyone could take part in the open auction and try to purchase a domain name. Each interested party submitted a transaction with the highest bid during the first three days of the open auction.

After this, the auction entered the information disclosure phase. Everyone revealed their bid or lost their locked ETH tokens, and the winning bidder paid the second highest bid. Then the other bidders received their bids back.

How much does it cost to purchase an ENS domain?

The cost of an ENS domain can be divided into two parts: the auction cost and the rental cost. The price of an ENS domain name at auction depended on its popularity. Recognizable names like god, car, or ETH were more expensive, and short three-letter words were usually the most expensive. Below are examples of domain name prices.

If you own an ENS domain, you will be required to pay an annual fee in ETH to renew your lease. Fees are quoted in dollars but are converted at the current exchange rate set by the Chainlink ETH/USD oracle. Annual renewal costs $5 per year for names of five or more characters, but the cost increases as the number of characters in the name decreases.

How to Apply for an Ethereum Name Service Airdrop

Any user with a .eth address on October 31, 2021, when the data snapshot was taken, is eligible to receive $ENS tokens. You can request them in a few simple steps. Do this before May 4, 2022 to receive tokens before they burn.

1. First, go to ENS Airdrop and connect your wallet by clicking [Connect] or [Connect Wallet].

2. Select your desired wallet, such as MetaMask, WalletConnect or another provider.

3. Click [Start].

4. You will see the [Start Receipt Process] option, as well as the desired amount.

5. Be sure to read the information about $ENS, as well as the constitution that you will need to sign using the wallet.

6. You can now delegate token voting rights to other users.

7. At the end, check the requested amount and your delegate, click [Get] and pay the gas fee to unlock your tokens.

Summary

In the world of decentralized networks, ENS is a step towards creating convenient ways to interact with the blockchain. Just as IP addresses are no longer used to navigate the web, ENS names will continue to proliferate due to their simplicity and growing popularity. After the airdrop, interest in the project from the cryptocurrency ecosystem continues to grow.