ENS (Ethereum Name Service) is the DNS of Blockchain
Ethereum is making big moves in the crypto space with the update, “London” rolling out last week in EIP-1559 making now a great time to remind everyone about what I believe is one of the most valuable use-cases for Ethereum, allowing you to own a part of its ecosystem. In this article we will discuss “Ethereum Name Service” and how it is the “Real Estate” of the Ethereum blockchain. Now, yes, there are other projects such as Fio Protocol that offer use cases similar to ENS, however none of them seem to have the same broad compatibility and usage as ENS.
This article will explain to you why I believe that ENS is the most valuable NFT on the blockchain, starting with the web2 version DNS and how ENS is has evolved from a creation that is almost a decade old.
Evolution of Domain Name Service (DNS)
| The Simple Answer: DNS makes it so that you can type words into a search bar when navigating to a website, instead of a long string of numbers.
The Domain Name System is a delegator that assigns domain names and maps those names to Internet resources like, websites.
| The Long Answer: Domain Name Services have been around for over a decade now and have provided the groundwork for all digital products and services that we use on a daily basis! These products include: Google, Facebook, Instagram… ANY website you can think of! Yes, ALL websites! Think about DNS kind of like a phone-book for the internet or an all-encapsulating directory.
Fundamentally, DNS translates domain names to IP addresses so browsers can load Internet resources, essentially translating the back-end to a palatable, easy-to-digest format for meat space (humans). If DNS did not exist, to visit any website you would have to enter the IPV4 address (162.159.152.4).
Now, hopefully, understanding the fundamentals about DNS can help you wrap your head around ENS and its uses.
Ethereum Name Service | Greater Potential than DNS
Ethereum Name Service is an NFT has the ability to do exactly what DNS accomplishes with Web3 integration…plus a much greater amount of services and can even be layered with DNS via IPFS. You can direct ENS to a wallet address for personal or business uses and you can even host a website on an ENS address. Lets walk through some examples of these use-cases below and how to claim an ENS address.
How to Claim
To claim your own ENS address you will want to navigate to the ENS Website. From here you will be able to select an address that fits your brand or your personal tastes. I chose TUKYO.eth because that is what I brand all of my work and creative projects under, so it helps with the coherency of my branding.
You may purchase a .eth domain for $5 USD + gas fees for the transaction. Each additional year is another $5, so the longer registration you purchase at once, the less gas fees you will have to pay over time. Because of scarcity a 3 letter domain is $600 and a 4 letter domain is $200.
ENS as a Wallet
You can send tokens and cryptocurrency to this address (without entering the entire 0xA66…1d14 address) also viewing my transactions and NFT purchases on Etherscan, BSCScan, PolygonScanner and any other blockchains that are compatible with my MetaMask wallet. This is only scratching the surface of what ENS can do.
ENS as a Website
There is a great tutorial on this website that may be able to help you create you first domain out of an ENS address. Currently with DNS being the top level of web-interaction you cannot directly access “.eth” addressess by typing it directly into your address bar, you must append “.link” at the end of the address like so: “TUKYO.eth.link”.
Summary
Currently NFT games like Axie Infinity, Crypto Kitties and real-life NFT’s like TreeRise are all the rage, while I find all of these to be refreshing and new, eventually everything will be hosted on an ENS domain. So, my strategy for this NFT craze will be the Pick-and-Shovel play, investing into the core infrastructure and building blocks of the ecosystem, instead of the products that live on the top layer.
Article Written by TUKYO
