Ethereum Name Service (ENS) offers a safe and decentralized way to address resources both on and off the Ethereum blockchain, using simple and human-readable names.
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Description of the Ethereum Name Service project
The project eliminates the need to copy or type long addresses. With ENS, you can send money to your friend at “aardvark.eth” instead of “0x4cbe58c50480 ...”, interact with your favorite contract at “mycontract.eth” or visit the site, hosted by Swarm at “swarmsite.eth.
Differences from other projects:
| Safety | ENS is built on smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain, which means it does not suffer from DNS insecurity. You can be sure that the names you enter work as their owner intended. |
| Spread | ENS operates in a distributed manner for both its infrastructure and management. Anyone can register a .eth domain name for themselves by participating in the blockchain-mediated auction process. |
.Eth domains are most commonly registered for Ethereum addresses, which may belong to third-party wallets or smart contracts. However, ENS is also often used to address off-chain resources such as data, stored in a Swarm.
The ENS team plans to support a large number of resources outside the Ethereum ecosystem, including resources on other blockchains.
Updates and additional information
ENS, like many other projects in the blockchain ecosystem, is an open source.
Over the past year at ENS, there have been some significant improvements:
- added support for multiple coins;
- issuing shorter names .ETH;
- switching from auctions to instant registration of .ETH names;
- the ability for any project to make your own ENS record;
- built-in support in major browsers such as Opera and Brave;
- tools to facilitate the connection of the IPFS site to the ENS and visiting such sites;
- launching IPFS + ENS directories / search engines such as Almonit and Blockscan.
There is no White Paper or roadmap on the site. However, this does not prevent users from using this project. The platform rules are quite simple, so even a beginner can figure out the functions. Smart contract audit can be viewed here. From social media, the community has twitter. There is also a blog on the Medium site, where you can study articles about the project.