Ethereum Name Service
medium.com/the-ethereum-name-service · Company blog · on HN since 2017
The Ethereum Name Service team writes about its decentralized naming system, DNS integration, IPFS hosting, and ENS governance.
What HN saysHN commenters link it for technical explanations of ENS with IPFS and DNS integration, and discuss concerns about custody of the eth.link domain.
16HN people shared it
9linked it in comments
9stories submitted
208story points
4 years agolast shared
2017people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Ethdns 9d56298fa38a3 people · first shared 2019
- 2Ways to surf some of the decentralized web2 people · 197 points · first shared 2020 · 98 comments on HN
- 3A Visual Timeline of an Ethereum Name Service Bid2 people · 4 points · first shared 2017 · discussion on HN
- 4How .ETH Names Compare to DNS Names Imported to ENS1 people · 2 points · first shared 2022 · 1 comments on HN
- 5Ethereum Name Service to Relaunch May 4th1 people · 2 points · first shared 2017 · discussion on HN
- 6Full DNS Namespace Integration to ENS Now on Mainnet1 people · 1 points · first shared 2021 · discussion on HN
- 7Bringing penetration testing to decentralized dispute resolution systems1 people · 1 points · first shared 2018 · discussion on HN
- 8How to Host Your Dapp with IPFS+ens and Access It via EthDNS1 people · 1 points · first shared 2020 · discussion on HN
- 9Ens partners with cloudflare on improved eth link service 4801bf9148ff1 people · first shared 2022
- 10Why ens doesnt create more tlds responsible citizenship in the global namespace 7e66658fe2b11 people · first shared 2022
- 11Who should own the naming system of the future ens as a public good 10e4a0ab71d81 people · first shared 2020
- 12List of ens names that resolve to tor onion websites 99140a4c674f1 people · first shared 2019
- 13Ens now supports tor onion address resolution 9bb3bdff62171 people · first shared 2019
What HN people wrote when they linked it
valentin_ivan · 2020-04-12
I didn't know about Cliqz. I'm always curious about new browsers. I just installed it, but it does not open "almonit.eth". Any idea why? Maybe I did something wrong.
Still I see the following "There are at least five browsers with native support for ENS+IPFS websites. That means you can just type “almonit.eth/” into the URL bar and it should work without special extensions." on https://medium.com/the-ethereum-name-service/all-the-ways-you-can-surf…
decentralised · 2020-02-26
In terms of access time, the standard would be O(1) for hashtables which would be my best guess at how to best represent an ip to domain mapping. Reading from on chain data is done locally (if you have your own node) and is near instant, but for wider reach I think DNS over HTTP would be needed or wasm clients that can be run in a browser.
Here is a possible implementation in Ethereum:
https://medium.com/the-ethereum-name-service/ethdns-9d56298fa38a
peterkelly · 2022-08-28
https://medium.com/the-ethereum-name-service/ens-partners-with-cloudfl…
For all the technical effort put into this, one would have hoped some thought would be given to ensure appropriate custody of the eth.link DNS registration.
coderintherye · 2020-02-11
ENS is managed by a non-profit, and they seem fairly competent:
https://medium.com/the-ethereum-name-service/who-should-own-the-naming…
momack2 · 2020-01-19
IPFS and ENS work pretty seamlessly together (https://medium.com/the-ethereum-name-service/ethdns-9d56298fa38a), but some folks also want the mutable pointers layer of IPNS too. We're working on making that faster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XniIDIXU8RE&t=10s
spir · 2019-11-14
.eth, the Ethereum Name System. https://ens.domains/
You can register an ENS domain here https://app.ens.domains/
ENS is mature, but the tld is not yet wired into dns. For now there is a bridge of *.eth.link, eg. https://almonit.eth.link/, see https://medium.com/the-ethereum-name-service/ethdns-9d56298fa38a
Sargos · 2019-10-25
ENS now supports .onion resolution. https://medium.com/the-ethereum-name-service/ens-now-supports-tor-onio…
zaphod420 · 2019-10-24
Ethereum has contract call ENS (Ethereum Name Service). It's kind of like a decentralized DNS.
People are starting to use that to create .eth domain names that point to .onion sites.
https://medium.com/the-ethereum-name-service/list-of-ens-names-that-re…
rvz · 2022-01-26
This is 100% correct.
From [0] as 'advertised':
> Launch censorship-resistant decentralised websites with ENS. Upload your website to IPFS and access it with your ENS name.
And from the evidence given here [1] and [2]:
> It takes 4 out of 7 geeks to bypass the blockchain in case of emergency, court orders or kneecaps.
Not even 7. What is the point of the multisig then? At least ICANN requires all keyholders, but this is less than the maximum holders to bypass the blockchain.
> “Moving forward, we want to be as responsible as we can. This includes possibly seeking to register .ETH through the normal ICANN process” - note that the “normal ICANN process” for gTLD regitration requires compliance with trademark law.
So ENS is not 'censorship resistant' and it is basically a blockchain version of GoDaddy selling .eth domains which you do not own and 'can' take your domain away (or redirect it) whenever they want.
Sounds like decentra-lies all over again and foreshadowing the web3 delusion, unless they take away the 'censorship-resistant' and 'decentralised websites' claims in [0].
[0] https://ens.domains/
[1] https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/dnsop/-9zBqWpvNBlekGotR211s1mf6t…
[2] https://medium.com/the-ethereum-name-service/why-ens-doesnt-create-mor…