The Ethereum Name Service is more widely known by its popular web3 domain extension, .eth, as in name.eth. But what if it was in reverse like eth.name? Such a thing is possible thanks to a combination of the DNS->ENS Import contract and the ENS NameWrapper contract.
For example
1. ENS-native name is photos.eth (which I don’t own).
2. DNS-native name eth.photos (which I do own).
.photos is a web2 DNS TLD that anyone can purchase from a registrar like GoDaddy to make a website. So say one were to register the domain name eth.photos (which I did), the result is effectively the reverse of photos.eth.
The average observer may argue that the two have little in common given that photos.eth is a web3-based blockchain name and eth.photos is a web2-based DNS name but they’d be wrong.
Here’s Why
The DNS->ENS Import contract allows anyone to turn a web2-based DNS domain name into a web3-compatible blockchain name. Watch me do that in the video below:
That turns a regular old domain name one can buy on GoDaddy into a crypto wallet address that will resolve in MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, the ENS Domains app, etc. But it gets better because thanks to the even newer technology, the ENS NameWrapper, that domain name can now also become a tradeable NFT, just like its .eth counterparts. That means a domain like eth.photos is not only a wallet address, but also an NFT. Don’t believe me? See on etherscan. See on OpenSea. See on ENS Domains.
There are caveats
1. The DNS TLD must support DNNSSEC (most do, but not all)
2. The DNS name imported into ENS remains under the ultimate centralized control of the owner of the DNS version.
There are benefits
1. The DNS name imported into ENS can also continue to resolve natively as a website.
2. Subdomains can be created and traded just like .eth. (See one with an emoji here)
There are other possibilities
One need not limit themselves to this usecase of a eth.___ domain name. For example, an eth.___ domain name can also serve as a gateway like what’s been done with eth.limo. Visit 3531.eth.limo for example.
The end result
None of the above is theoretical. In fact, the very first person to wrap DNS imported eth.___ domain names is yours truly and I didn’t just do it with eth.photos. Below are 18 live examples of DNS domain names that have been imported and wrapped.
It’s not .eth, it’s eth.
Thanks for reading.