Introduction

An ENS domain is an essential part of your Web3 identity. Do you have one yet?

If not, fear not. I’m Biv and I’m here to help. I’ve been an NFT zealot and ENS maxi for 3 years now. In fact, of all the NFTs I’ve bought, ENS domains were amongst the first I ever made. It’s also the NFT that I’ve bought the most, so I know my way around their platform.

In this guide, I’m going to dive into the Ethereum Name Service, ENS for short. I’ll teach how to buy ENS domains and explore how it can simplify and enhance your crypto experience in Web3. They might even be a good investment for the future, which I’ll also touch upon 👀

Understanding ENS

ENS is the Ethereum Name Service. Think ICANN and DNS for Web3. It allows you to replace your long, complicated public key, with a short, easy-to-remember name instead.

Much like how traditional domain names are used to send you to a website easier than typing in the website’s IP address, ENS does the same for crypto wallets.

Think of it as a phone book, instead of a long, complicated hash, ENS will allow you to simply type in biv.eth, for example.

But unlike ICANN, ENS is run by a DAO, meaning it’s decentralized, which fits into the mold of cryptocurrency.

Already, ENS has integrated its service into big platforms like Coinbase and many others including Nike and Amazon are already securing their domain names just to be safe in the future.

Benefits of Using ENS Domains

As mentioned, ENS helps you shorten the length of wallet address. But it can also be used as a branding opportunity. This ENS domain can represent your entire Web3 brand. That’s because, not only will it be used by people to send you payments, but on different platforms, this is how you’ll appear on there!

ENS integrates with various Web3 protocols and services, including OpenSea and Coinbase. Whether it’s DeFi, NFTs, or Dapps, you’ll certainly want to have a short and snappy ENS to flex on fools there. The sooner you secure them the better.

However, if you’d prefer to stay anon, ENS is still on the decentralized web. You can grab a 10K Club digit domain and operate without anyone knowing your name or online identity. They’ll simply be able to send money to 2291.eth, for example.

How to Get Started with ENS

• Overview of ENS registration process.
• Choosing the right domain name.
• Registration through supported wallets and platforms.
• Tips for securing and managing ENS domains.

Registering an ENS domain is straightforward enough. You simply need a wallet and an idea. You can go to https://ens.domains/ to start looking for the domain you want.

Consider the gas which is at the top left of the screen. For domains 5 characters or longer, you will have to 0.0015 ETH per year for registration+network fees (that’s why you consider gas). 3 and 4 character domains are much more expensive so do keep that in mind as you are choosing your domain.

Once you’re ready to go, simply connect your wallet and click buy. You will prompted to confirm 2 transactions. One is claim your spot. After a brief waiting period has passed to ensure no one else is trying to register that same domain at the same time, you confirm once more and the domain is yours!

You can use essentially any wallet with ENS, including MetaMask, Rainbow, MyEtherWallet, or Coinbase Wallet. You’ll want to set your new identity as your primary domain so that it shows the rest of Web3 that you’re serious about your game.

(Keep in mind the renewal date and set a reminder to renew it so you don’t lose it later).

Best Practices for Selecting ENS Domains

If you have a domain in mind already, that’s great! Go check to see if it’s available.

However, if you’re having issues deciding, I have some recommendations for you. This is true of even traditional domains.

• Don’t use dashes or numbers.
• Avoid domain squatting on popular names and IP you hope to sell to them one day (spoiler alert, they never come)
• Keep it short, one word preferred, two words max.

You want something snappy and brandable. If that’s your last name, then great. However, if you need to create an entirely new identity for yourself, then do that! Web3 is a place to be a completely new person, so it’ll be good timing.

If you’re feeling very adventurous, there are already well-established ENS communities that you might want to consider joining. You can find a few on vision.io, but here are the ones that I know already slap:

• Importance of keyword research and relevance for SEO optimization.
• Considerations for branding and availability.
• Avoiding trademark infringement and domain squatting.
• Understanding ENS domain categories and pricing.
• Secondary Markets

Digits

Digits are the OG ENS community. 

Some genius figured out in 2022 that ENS had its own 10K collection similar to that of CryptoPunks and the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Yes, there were 9999 numbers from 0000-9999 and they could be registered on ENS.

It sounds dumb, but the more you think about it, the more it makes sense.

2291.eth, for example, can be completely anonymous and be remembered easily. It serves the base purpose of an ENS domain. However, it also unlocks the power of community.

Yes, by having only 10K of them available (hence the 10K club), there’s an exclusivity to them. There’s also a little bit of a flex to ones that are just 3 digits (called the 999 club) because they cost a big premium.

But digit owners are able to find each other online much like Bored Ape holders are able to find each other online. It became the vogue ENS domain for a while there. They’ve fallen back down to the Earth, as the high renewal prices have made it hard for people to hold onto them long term. 

That being said, it’s still a great community to belong to as you get started with ENS. They’re a lot of smart people still involved with it.

Fandom/Pokemon ENS

Soon, another genius came along and said, there are only so many Pokemon available on ENS too. That’s where Pokemon ENS comes in. This is once again a super strong community of domain collectors. They understood too that Pokemon names were a little more brandable than 4 numbers, so they were able to band together and watch their community take off.

For the same reason that the 10K club is exclusive, so is Pokemon ENS with the added bonus of being a brand that people still obsess over.

It doesn’t stop there either. Other ENS communities have started by attaching themselves to certain fandoms including anime, cartoons, and movies.

You can purchase most of these on secondary markets like OpenSea and the aforementioned vision.io (my personal preference). You’ll obviously have to pay more and deal with domain squatters who think their ENS domain is way more valuable than it is, but to join a special ENS community will be worth it in the long run.

Advanced Features and Integration Options

Subdomains

There are a lot of cool, technical tricks you can use with ENS. It’s an entire protocol and I won’t pretend to know even half of the things you can do.

The subdomains feature is probably the most useful to beginners and experts alike. It functions (again) much like a traditional subdomain as it can point to a completely different address and can even be wrapped and sold as such.

Imagine Nike wants to create subdomains for their athletes, in theory, they could do this and have each subdomain represent the wallet of a different athlete.

• Lebron.nike.eth
• KD.nike.eth
• Jordan.nike.eth

And so on…

To do create a subdomain, you will need to pay gas, but it’s a rather straightforward process. I have setup a “vault” subdomain so I can quickly and easily send NFTs to my hard wallet.

The Future of ENS

There you have it. You are an ENS master. You are off to the races, you can start buying and trading ENS domains today if you want to.

Remember, this is a long-term play. You won’t sell any domains overnight. It’ll be months and sometimes a years long process. Despite all the uncertainty, I believe in ENS long term.

There are services out there that track expiring ENS domains. Right now, a lot of good ENS domains are dropping like flies. That’s because the ENS DAO has kind of dropped the ball.

At one time there was a lot of money flying into the ENS ecosystem. People were overpaying for high quality domains, hoping they’d resell for much more. The 10K community was thriving and was worth a lot of money. 

However, things dried up and those people who were overextended got angry.

Despite all the turmoil (and to be clear, things don’t look great right now), I think there’s some promising things on the horizon for ENS.

First they have a new partnership with GoDaddy, which hopes to bring in traditional domain owners into the world of Web3.

Next, there is word on the street that ENS will be dropping a L2 in order to make gas fees negligible. A big issue has been paying more for gas to register a domain that it’s actual renewal costs. It makes splurge purchases hard as you have to properly time when gas is low. An L2 would change this and give ENS another chance to win back the community with an airdrop of some sort again.

(Their first ENS airdrop was a success and remains one of the smoothest and best examples in the Web3 space in my opinion).

Either way, I hope this guide helped. You can now leverage ENS domains to enhance your Web3 experience. Let’s get it.

Other FAQs

Can I transfer ownership of my ENS domain to someone else?

Yes, you just need to update the wallet address of the owner in your ENS domains account. This will effectively transfer ownership to them. This costs a small gas fee to update to the new wallet address.

How long does it take to register an ENS domain?

Do I need to renew my ENS domain annually?

Yes. To save gas, you can bulk renew your ENS domain for multiple years. If you're very confident you'll be keeping your ENS domain for the long term, you can renew it for 10 years!

Can I link multiple cryptocurrency addresses to one ENS domain?

Yes. Go to the information of your ENS domain in their admin panel. If you haven't already, connect the wallet that holds the ENS NFT you registered. Click on the DETAILS tab in the app. Enter the addresses you'd like your domain name to point to for multiple chains. For example, you can enter a BTC address, a BCH address, an ETH address, and so on.

What happens if I forget to renew my ENS domain?

If you happen to miss renewing your Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domain, don't worry; there's a 90-day grace period before it becomes available to everyone again. Within this time frame, you can still reclaim your domain without losing ownership rights, although you won't be able to make any changes to its records. This means the name and its associated information stay the same, and any Ethereum tokens sent to that name will still reach the designated wallet address.

Can I use my ENS domain for websites outside of the Ethereum ecosystem?

Are there any limitations on the characters I can use in my ENS domain name?

ENS names are generally encoded using UTS-46, which means they have partial support for Unicode characters, including emoji. In fact, emojis ENS are another community you can get involved with!

Names that are not valid UTS-46 will not be resolvable by most resolvers, which includes some emojis so be careful.

Is there a limit to how many ENS domains I can own?

Nope! You'll just be on the hook for crazy renewal payments every year. Happy hunting though.