Forwarded the original title ‘解读 ENS V2: 将 ETH 主网域名服务延伸到 L2 上’

As long as the timing is right, old trees will bloom new flowers.

Yesterday, ENS (Ethereum Domain Name Service), which Vitalik is firmly optimistic about but the project itself has been silent for a long time, announced the V2 version of ENS on its official Twitter account: promoting the original domain name service to L2.

With the expected support of the ETH ETF, ENS tokens have increased by as much as 60% in the past month. Taking advantage of this trend to launch new products is a logical choice.

What benefits and impacts will supporting various ENS domain names on L2 bring? We flipped through the new ENS technical white paper to try to find the answer.

Why support L2?

ENS has clearly seen the current decrease in ETH mainnet activity and L2 activity, which is one of the main reasons why it is riding the wave.

In addition, ENS has supported CCIP-Read in its technological accumulation over the past few years, which allows querying off-chain data during the ENS name resolution process. This means that name resolution is not limited to data within the blockchain, but can also obtain data from other systems, including L2 (Layer 2) and external databases.

Simply put, CCIP-Read is like giving your domain name more possibilities and choices. You can freely decide where to resolve and manage your domain name, and you are no longer limited to the Ethereum mainnet.

Technically, L2 domain names can be handled, and coupled with the trend of user transfer, you will naturally understand the motivation of ENS.

More importantly, the Ethereum mainnet (L1) has become a bottleneck for ENS expansion due to its high transaction fees and limited processing power. Each registration, renewal and update operation on ENS requires a high gas fee, which not only increases the burden on users, but also limits the popularity and application of ENS.

Through ENS V2, users can delegate domain name resolution to L2 or other external systems, so that they can enjoy the low cost and high speed of L2 while choosing the most suitable solution according to their needs.

ENS V2: Lower cost and more flexible domain name service

To understand how ENS V2 is implemented, you need to have a general understanding of its components.

ENS allows you to map complex Ethereum addresses (such as 0x1234…abcd) to simple and easy-to-remember names (such as alice.eth). In this way, when you want to send cryptocurrency to others or interact with decentralized applications (dApps), you only need to remember a simple name instead of a long list of addresses.

But what is behind all this?

Registry: This is a place where all domain names are recorded. It will tell you who the owner of a domain name is and the address of the resolver responsible for resolving the domain name.

Resolvers: When you enter a domain name, the resolver is responsible for converting it to the corresponding Ethereum address or other resource (such as IPFS content hash).

Registrars: These are the entities responsible for allocating and managing domain names. They ensure that domain names can be registered, renewed, and updated.

In ENS V1, all of these parts run on the Ethereum mainnet, which means that each registration or update of a domain name requires a high transaction fee (Gas fee). This not only increases the cost for users, but also limits the popularity of ENS.

ENS V2 brings a number of improvements to these three key technical components, aiming to address issues in V1 and improve the flexibility and scalability of the system.

New hierarchical registry architecture

In ENS V2, the registry is designed as a hierarchical structure. Each domain name has its own registry that manages its subdomains and resolvers. The benefits of this design are:

• Support name expiration: When a domain name expires, it immediately disappears from the registry, reducing management complexity.
• More efficient subtree management: Entire subtrees can be recursively replaced or deleted, making management of multiple domains more efficient.

Universal parser

ENS V2 introduces a universal resolver that simplifies the domain name resolution process. Users only need to call a resolve method, and the resolver will handle all the logic internally. This not only simplifies the client implementation, but also provides a convenient migration path, allowing existing users to smoothly transition to the new system.

Support L2

ENS V2 allows users to delegate domain name resolution to the L2 (Layer 2) network or other external systems. This means that users can enjoy the low fees and high speed of L2 while choosing the most suitable solution according to their needs. This change greatly reduces transaction fees and improves the systems processing power and user experience.

The TLDR version is as follows:

How to migrate to V2?

Obviously, the launch of ENS V2 provides users with more efficient and low-cost domain name services. In the future, we may foresee a wave of the old drama of domain name rush on L2.

But to take advantage of these new features, existing ENS users will need to migrate their domains from V1 to V2.

Judging from the official technical documents, first, the ENS team will deploy all ENS V2 contracts on L1 and L2. These contracts will be granted temporary permissions in the initial stage, such as disabling registration and renewal functions, to ensure a smooth migration process.

After the initial deployment is complete, the first synchronization operation occurs. This creates entries for existing .eth second-level domains (2 LDs) on L2 and transfers ownership of these entries to the migration contract.

Users can then choose to migrate their domains to either the L1 or L2 system of ENS V2:

• Migrate to L2: The user transfers the ENS V1 name to the system contract, which then creates or transfers the ENS V2 name on L2 to the user. During this process, L1’s domain name resolver will continue to reflect the status of unmigrated names, ensuring that there will be no resolution interruption.
• Migrate to L1: Users can choose to keep their domain names on L1 for stronger security and availability guarantees. The migration process is similar, and the system will ensure that the resolver and registration information on L1 are updated simultaneously.

Through the above steps, ENS V2 provides a smooth migration path, allowing users to easily transition to the new system and enjoy lower fees, higher speeds, and more flexible domain name management functions.

However, the current migration roadmap is only in the planning stage, and the specific time for implementation is subject to official information.

Finally, domain name service itself is not a hot track, and the current price increase of ENS benefits more from the narrative of ETH BETA; and with product updates and cooperation with more L2s, there is one more reason to extend this round of BETA.

The migration of ENS to L2 will reduce domain name registration costs and increase speed, which may trigger a new round of domain name squatting. As registration fees drop, more users and developers may be the first to register domain names they are interested in, thereby expanding ENS’s user base.

Meanwhile, the launch of ENS V2 could be a catalyst for an increase in the price of the ENS token ($ENS). Lower transaction fees and higher system efficiency will attract more users and developers to use ENS services, thereby increasing demand for $ENS. Additionally, as ENS scales on L2, more use cases and integrations will confer more value capture effects.

Disclaimer：

1. This article is reprinted from [techflow]. Forward the Original Title‘解读 ENS V2: 将 ETH 主网域名服务延伸到 L2 上’. All copyrights belong to the original author [TechFlow]. If there are objections to this reprint, please contact the Gate Learn team, and they will handle it promptly.
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