Ethereum Identity through ENS

http://ens.domains

Hi! I am 0x9457cbd47bbc8bcc93f57864c5bca2df543f5698. Nice to meet you, 0X9456CBD45BBC9BCC43F09457C5BCA2DF345F9845! I’m sure we will get along very well. What do you say if we start talking like that in the future, I mean, naming our offsprings like that?

Of course, we’re going a little too far here, but we’re trying to approach the ENS, or metaphorically speaking, the baptising of your Ethereum wallet with a more humane name.

On PayPal, Venmo or other platforms like this, you can send money using the name or the e-mail address of the recipient. Why not do so with cryptocurrency, specifically, why not do so with Ethereum?

Now, there is ENS. ENS brings the names, the real human names to Ethereum. Just like browsing to www.something.com, now you could send money to wallet.somethings.eth . Better, isn’t it?

As you have probably guessed so far, ENS is short for Ethereum Name Service and it allows you to better interact with Ether. More specifically, ENS allows users to register a domain name for their wallet address so that they can be easier to find; the transfers could, thus, be linked directly to a name instead of a hexadecimal address. This way, you will save yourself the headache of copying, or worse, typing some digits and letters that have no meaning for the the human brain so to speak. We’re not computers, we’re not used to operating with long chains of digits. We like names!

Moreover, once you have your own ENS domain, you can create some other subdomains and assign them as you wish. Decentralization is the key when talking about ENS.Getting a domain is a matter of auctioning. To have your own name.eth, you will have to participate in an auction that is run on the Ethereum blockchain. Anyone can bid to secure a domain for themselves. Also, patience is involved, as you will have to wait for the name you want to become available, then bid on it and reveal your bid later. The highest bid wins the name, of course. You can register a name of your choosing for the minimum price of 0.01 ETH. If no one else bids against you, you got it just for that small price!

The ETH you have just won in the auction will be locked in a smart contract and only for a year. During this period of time, you can do with your domain as you please. You can add extra data, make other subdomains, you can also loan or lease. After that one year has expired, you have the choice to give up the name and recover the entire amount of the deposit. Basically, you sort of get your money back.

In a way, ENS’s goals are similar to those of DNS, the famous Internet’s Domain Name Service, but ENS has a very different architecture, due to the Ethereum blockchain, and it’s more secure.

Why ENS?

1. It provides you with an identity: Yes, you need an identity, a name which makes it all easier than a code. If you’re working with cryptocurrency, that does not mean you are turning into a digital person yourself. You are still a human being and you need to identify your Ethereum wallet with a human name, maybe not your name, but a combination of a few letters that can easily be read and recognized. It is really important to establish a clear identity. Even though you’re working with digital money, you are still a person processing and working better with names, combinations of letters that can be pronounced in a word. Words serve a greater meaning to us than digits will ever do (even though we’re getting pretty good at manipulating them as well). We can compare ENS to DNS, to some extent, but let’s try to make the comparison backwards, meaning, how would it be if you had to google www.vbc4529230ddfj3.com to find your friend’s website? Fortunately, we don’t know.
2. Transactions are easier to make: You’ll no longer need to carefully copy and paste the many digits and letters that come with an Ethereum wallet, or even worse, type them one by one. Errors may occurs when making a transfer; actually, errors might have occurred so far.
3. It is not really a DNS, don’t worry! ENS is built on smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain. It doesn’t have the same security issues as does his distant and much more old-fashioned cousin, the DNS system. You can be sure that the names you enter work the way their owners intended. Moreover, the names are distributed in a decentralized manner. As you’ve seen above, anyone can participate in an auction process to get the name they want and the auction is mediated by the blockchain.

In conclusion, ENS is a smart way forward to assigning a clear identity to your Ethereum wallet, easier facilitating transactions and also, keeping it all in a decentralized manner. Once you’ve got ENS, you can send money to jonathan.eth, interact with a contract at mycontract.eth or, you name it.