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ENS Labs, the organization behind the Ethereum Name Service (ENS), has launched a Ethereum Layer 2 solution called Namechain, designed to scale blockchain-based identity and simplify the registration and management of ENS domains.
The announcement, made during the "frENSday" conference during Devcon in Bangkok on November 11, signals a significant step toward improving the user experience for ENS domain holders and developers alike.
“The industry’s success metric for rollups these days is TVL,” Jeff Lau, co-founder of ENS, said, announcing Namechain. “We don’t need to prioritize TVL. ENS already has users, and we can really prioritize things that other L2s don’t.”
What is Namechain?
Namechain is a Layer 2 solution built on zero-knowledge proof (zk) technology, which allows transactions to be executed off the Ethereum mainnet while preserving Ethereum's security at a much lower cost. This approach solves one of the main challenges facing the Ethereum ecosystem—high transaction fees—by shifting operations to Layer 2 while ensuring the integrity of Ethereum's decentralization.
Namechain is designed with interoperability at its core. It will support L2-to-L2 bridging, allowing users to transfer assets and interact across different Layer 2 networks seamlessly.
“You can do things like commit whilst you bridge, and pay from your preferred L2,” said Lau. This flexibility ensures that users can start their ENS journey on any Ethereum Layer 2 network, lowering the barriers to entry for newcomers and developers alike.
By leveraging zkEVM (zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine), Namechain will offer fast finality for transactions, helping to speed up the registration and management of ENS names while keeping costs 99% lower than on Ethereum’s mainnet. The system’s focus on open-source software and maintaining ENS’s decentralized nature ensures that the solution remains in line with the values that have made ENS a cornerstone of the Ethereum ecosystem.
"Deploying onto another public chain makes it harder to build the user experience right into the protocol. Being able to control the entire stack—from protocol to governance—means that the rollup is here to serve ENS and naming," Lau explained
Announced live at #frENSday🎤
— ens.eth (@ensdomains) November 11, 2024
Namechain by @ensdomains , a purpose-built Layer 2 solution!
This is the next evolution in ENS and part of the larger ENSv2 direction. By dramatically reducing costs, improving performance, and providing a familiar Ethereum developer experience our… pic.twitter.com/bIwHa22vJL
Namechain is part of the broader ENSv2 initiative, a significant upgrade to the Ethereum Name Service that was unveiled in May 2024. ENSv2 aims to expand ENS beyond the Ethereum mainnet and onto Ethereum Layer 2 networks, making it more flexible and affordable for users to create and manage blockchain-based identities.
The integration of Namechain into ENSv2 marks a critical step toward making ENS a more versatile and scalable solution for decentralized identities. “With ENSv2 and Namechain, it will be significantly easier to register names, update records, and manage decentralized websites,” said Greg Skril, developer relations lead at ENS Labs.
Lower Fees, Enhanced Usability, Seamless Interoperability
One of the most notable aspects of Namechain is its ability to reduce transaction fees by 99% compared to the Ethereum mainnet. For users and developers alike, this drastically reduces the cost of ENS domain registration and management, making it more accessible to a broader audience, ENS said.
With L2-to-L2 bridging capabilities, users will be able to seamlessly transfer assets and perform transactions across different Layer 2 networks. This interoperability feature is crucial for ensuring that ENS domains are usable across various Ethereum scaling solutions, allowing for greater flexibility in how users interact with blockchain-based identities.
As ENS Labs works on rolling out Namechain, the team has already chosen its Layer 2 partners, although these partners have not yet been publicly disclosed. These collaborations are expected to play a key role in ensuring the success of Namechain by supporting a diverse range of Layer 2 networks.
ENS has seen significant growth over the past year, with over 2 million names registered on-chain and 4 million names off-chain as of September 2024. In addition to scaling through Layer 2, ENS has continued to integrate with major platforms, further cementing its role as the standard for blockchain identity. Notably, PayPal and Venmo integrated ENS into their payment systems, enabling over 270 million users in the United States to make crypto transfers using ENS addresses.
