ENS DAO: A fundamental part?
ENS DAO: What's going on?
Last week ENS (Ethereum Name Service) took the plunge and became a DAO (Decentral Autonomous Organisation) by way of an airdrop.
Let's take a better look at what's going on.
What is ENS?
ENS is the Web 3.0 version of domain names. Or more accurately, the underlying DNS system that allows us to type in an address to visit a website instead of having to remember numeric IP addresses. With Web 3.0 technologies becoming more widespread, there's an increasing need for more efficient and easy ways to use them.
That's where ENS comes in.
In its basic form, it's a lookup system that maps long strings (like 0x89205A3A39Db2A67fb2A6D13B2b2A62c43e7) to a name (for example ABC.etc), thereby making it easy to interact with Ethereum addresses (to send or receive $ETH for example), other cryptocurrency addresses, and crypto metadata.
ENS started as a side project of two members from the Ethereum Foundation (Nick Johnson and Alex Van de Sande) that started to look for ways to replace the addresses used by Ethereum with ones that are easier for humans to read. In 2017 they launched and made it possible for everybody to register .eth domains. Right now a wide variety of top-level domains is supported.
Why ENS is useful
What does this all mean? In a nutshell: It makes internet life easier by boosting the user experience of crypto immensely, and (being built on Ethereum) making it more secure.
These two elements make ENS not just a handy gadget for crypto aficionados, but show that there's value beyond that for the larger internet community.
Why?
It's easy to see why typing simple names instead of long and hard-to-remember addresses is more convenient, but there are a few more use cases.
Other decentralised websites, dApps, and web services can plug into the system enabling things like hosting decentralised websites through services like IPFS, connecting your social media handles, or making and accepting payments from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 platforms. Another promising feature is single sign-on which makes an ENS address more something akin to a passport instead of 'just' a wallet.
ENS vs. DNS
ENS serves a similar purpose as the DNS system, the technology behind it, is (by design) very different. DNS has some issues:
- DNS has traditionally been the subject of criticism for its inherent design flaws that makes the system vulnerable to malicious attacks
- And, DNS domains can easily be taken down by authorities and registrars,
ENS doesn't have these problems: Being built on decentralised Ethereum smart contracts means ENS is more secure, private and resistant to censorship.
The Airdrop
Last week ENS took the next step towards decentralisation by becoming a DAO (Decentral Autonomous Organisation) through the launch of $ENS, its governance token that facilitates distributed decision making by allowing token holders to shape the future of ENS. They did so by airdropping tokens to anyone that already held an ENS domain on November 1st. The first order of business for token holders is coming to terms with a sort of constitution consisting out of different rules and guidelines outlined by the founders.
With this step, a service that might become an essential piece of internet infrastructure is now a public utility that is owned and managed by its members. This collective ownership is in itself one of the fundamental principles of Web 3.0.
Or as ENS' Director of Operations Brantley Millegan stated on Twitter: "You were not airdropped free money, you were airdropped responsibility".