With so many innovations being released in the last six months, it’s time to post an update to ELI5 This DNS Stuff With ENS. REAL Domain names are entering web3 and here is what you need to know:
.eth – The .eth extension is a decentralized web3 identity. .eth names are not domain names in the DNS system, but rather names used to shorten long ethereum hexadecimal addresses. The technology belongs to ENS, the Ethereum Name Service. It allows people to identify me as sean3.eth instead of 0xec00481D13A4028E0B76B031Cf5C863604cB2D4B for example.
DNS->ENS Import – The ENS technology allows almost any DNS domain (like debanked.com for example) to functionally work in the manner that a .eth name would. By importing a DNS domain into ENS, not only will the .com still work as a website but it will also be usable to shorten a long ethereum hexadecimal address. It allows people to identify me as debanked.com instead of 0x64233eAa064ef0d54ff1A963933D0D2d46ab5829 for example.
Wrapping a DNS->ENS Import – Once you’ve imported a DNS domain into ENS, you can go one step further and wrap it using the ENS NameWrapper contract. This will unlock more ENS features in that your DNS domain will now also have an NFT counterpart. The debanked.com NFT, for example, will now be transferable from one ethereum address to another, which allows one to easily delegate management of the identity to another address or person. This does not transfer ownership of the DNS domain itself, it only delegates management of the identity in web3. The DNS domain name owner can withdraw or redelegate those management powers at any time.
Tokenizing a DNS Domain – Web3-compatible DNS registrars like 3DNS and Namefi allow for anyone to tokenize a DNS domain into an NFT. This technology is different from the ENS NameWrapper because transferring a tokenized DNS domain transfers the actual ownership of the DNS domain. That means if you listed the NFT of nftsarereal.com on OpenSea and someone bought it, they would own all rights to the domain including the NFT and the website address. 3DNS enables this on Optimism (an Ethereum layer 2) while Namefi does it on Ethereum Mainnet.
ENSing a Tokenized Domain – Importing these DNS domains into ENS will likely be doable at the registrar level (like on the 3DNS or Namefi user dashboard) so one need not go through the typical DNS->ENS import process. Stay tuned as this gets integrated.
.box – .box is the first fully onchain DNS tld. It’s a real DNS tld whose ownership rights natively exist in NFT format. If you transfer a .box NFT, the recipient would own all rights to the domain including the NFT and the website address.
.x, .crypto, .nft – These extensions are web3 identities and do not work as domain names in the DNS system, but rather as names that can be used to shorten long ethereum hexadecimal addresses. The technology belongs to Unstoppable Domains and is based on the Polygon network.