Ethereum Naming Service or ENS as fondly called is a decentralized naming protocol that is built on the ethereum blockchain. The ENS concept aims to humanize crypto addresses by changing them from a long technical mix of figures to easy-to-remember human names.
Ethereum Naming Service adheres to open-source standards and it is built on the back of a set of decentralized smart contracts.
ENS converts crypto address names to human names making them user-friendly, easy to remember, and shareable. The ENS project is not limited alone to the Ethereum network. The project is functional for the wider blockchain ecosystem and enables cross-chain naming for long addresses such as hashes, smart contracts, and Meta Data.
Mechanism, Mission, and Origin
ENS’s main mission is to humanize the technical nature of crypto addresses and other features into easy-to-remember and shared human names. The project features fit into the three main features of a standard network protocol which are
- Human-like
- Secure
- Decentralized
ENS are built with open-source programming meaning any interested party can examine the code. ENS names are programmable and are stored on the Ethereum network as ERC-721 NFT tokens and in the future as ERC-1155 NFT standard tokens.
The ENS mechanism is similar to the DNS in the Web 2 world which converts long and complex numbers and letter combinations into human-readable labels.
The ethereum network hosting the project ensures it remains transparent, decentralized, and Secure.
The concept of ENS was birthed in April 2016 by former Google Engineer Nick Johnson.
However, the first ENS names were minted in May 2017, starting with rilxxlir. eth. The Top-Level Domain is .eth, a reserved “special use domain” within the ICANN or (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) namespace organization.
ENS later branched off from the Ethereum Foundation to form its project with the help of a grant from the EF. The team behind the project focused on continuing the development and building of the protocol.
Difference between ENS and DNS
The major difference between the two naming services is in how they resolve records.
ENS is built on a set of decentralized smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain leaving no need for centralized operators and systems, unlike DNS.
The mapping of DNS names relies on centralized root servers, which play a key role in resolving records.
ENS on the other hand uses immutable and transparent smart contracts stored on the Ethereum blockchain to resolve its records in a clear disparity from what is obtainable with DNS.
ENS is an important initiative and infrastructure, built as a public good for humanity and is not interested in profits.
The project’s development is driven by and for the community. No entity controls the ENS protocol.