What is ENS?

The name system of the future.

ENS, or Ethereum Name Service, is a distributed, open, and extensible naming system built on the Ethereum blockchain. It enables the mapping of human-readable names, such as 'alice.eth', to machine-readable identifiers, including Ethereum addresses, other cryptocurrency addresses, content hashes, and metadata. ENS allows for reverse resolution, which means users can associate metadata like canonical names or interface descriptions with Ethereum addresses. To interact with ENS, users can engage directly with ENS smart contracts or use libraries like ethers.js.

How does it work?

An ENS domain name uses ERC-721 Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) to represent a unique address. You can trade a domain by transferring or selling the NFT to someone else. Wallet addresses and other information are attached to each token, which is manageable by the owner. A top-level domain like .eth is owned by a smart contract called a registrar that controls the creation of subdomains.

What is it useful for?

If you've ever got confused with multiple long hexadecimal addresses when sending cryptocurrencies, you'll understand the need for ENS. Like you would save a friend's phone number under their name, ENS lets users turn long numbers into easy-to-remember words. This creates a more straightforward experience with less chance for errors.

An ENS domain owner can also create subdomains that they can then assign other data to. It doesn't always have to be a wallet address, either. You could use it to direct to a smart contract, transaction, or metadata.

Where can I learn more?

You can check out the extensive ENS docs, of course, but if you have specific questions worth answering, you can ask Nick Lite - a natural language model trained by us on the ENS docs, as well as Nick.eth himself!

Join our discord server and ask him any question your heart desires!