You may have seen them before. The addresses of crypto wallets. An address to which crypto is sent consists of a series of letters and numbers and says nothing about who the holder of this wallet is. A long string of letters and numbers is not convenient to use because you can't immediately tell if you copied the entire address correctly. This is why the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) was invented. In this blog, I will cover the ENS.
Where do ENS come from?
During the evolution of the Internet, there was a period when it was not possible to access information on the Internet in a simple way. You could only access information on the web by typing the entire IP address into the search bar of a web browser. To make this easier, the Domain Name Service (DNS) was invented. The DNS made it easier to look up information on the Internet. The IP address no longer had to be typed in the search bar of the web browser.
Computers can only understand IP addresses. A simple 'google.com' could not be understood by the computer. To facilitate this, google.nl (domain name) was linked to an IP address. When you want to go to google.co.uk, you type it into the search bar. The DNS takes care of translating the domain name to the linked IP address which is then passed on to the computer.
How does Ethereum Name Service work?
The ENS can be thought of as a provider of domains. These domains can be registered and, for example, wallet addresses can be linked to them. In practice, this is easier because it is no longer necessary to use the entire wallet address, but only a domain name. Domain names are easier to use.
Example
Suppose Alice and Bart are having a drink. Alice has paid for Bart. Alice then requests a payment from Bart via Ethereum. Alice gives her Ethereum wallet address to Bart so that Bart can transfer the amount owed to Alice. Suppose Alice's wallet address looks like this: 0x29e2795765ea09E6AAc92458bA631c9c46Ed5d05. You can imagine Bart making a mistake when taking over this address (especially if you've already had a few drinks). In addition, it's not an address you can just memorize.
With the ENS function it is possible to register, for example, Alicewallet10. To this domain you can then link the above wallet address. Now Bart only needs to remember Alicewallet10 (or write it down on a beer filter) to send Ethereum to Alice. This is a lot easier than looking up the correct address every time and checking whether you copied it correctly. A mistake is easily made and ENS certainly contributes to ease of use.
Advantages of ENS
- No long addresses. ENS eliminates the need to copy or type long addresses. With ENS, you can send money to your friend at 'Alicewallet10' instead of '0x29e2795765ea09E...',
- Secure. ENS is built on smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain, which means it doesn't suffer from the insecurity of the traditional DNS system.
- Distributed (not centralized). ENS works in a distributed way for both infrastructure and governance. Anyone can register an '.eth' domain name for themselves by participating in an auction process mediated by the blockchain.
Important to note
- ENS is based on a decentralized infrastructure. Thus, the domains on ENS are resistant to some censorship. This is because there is no central authority such as a government that can ban your ENS in any geographical area.
- Registering a domain on the ENS will cost $5 per year and has to be paid in Ether (the cryptocurrency).
- The domains offered by ENS are ERC721 tokens. These are also called NFTs. The ownership of an NFT is registered on the Ethereum blockchain. The cool thing is that you can trade your own domain on an NFT marketplace! NFT's isn't only used for digital art, but also for domain names.
Cool, but how do I get an ENS?
Go to this website here to find step by step instructions to get your own ENS domain.
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