Ethereum Name Service plans expansion to Layer 2 ecosystem

The Ethereum Name Service (ENS), a decentralized domain name system built on the Ethereum blockchain, will implement Layer 2 interoperability with ENS domains, according to the project’s developer, ENS Labs, during a community call on Thursday.

The team said it identified Layer 2 interoperability as a crucial upgrade in the pipeline. Layer 2 solutions, such as Arbitrum and Optimism, are ‘off-chain’ mechanisms designed to handle transactions away from the Layer 1 Ethereum blockchain to improve scalability and reduce costs. By providing a mechanism for Layer 2 solutions to interact with ENS domains, the team aims to make domain name registrations and transactions more accessible to a broader user base.

The team plans to utilize off-chain resolvers with the help of an ENS off-chain registrar contract and various service providers, including the Coinbase-operated project cb.id, Lens Protocol (on Polygon), and OptiNames (on Optimism), among others.

Gasless import of web names 

The team announced that web-integrated domain name TLDs, including .art and .box, are collaborating with ENS Labs for close integration. This will allow users to register browser-supported names via ENS. Furthermore, it will also enable DNS names to be traded as NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain for the first time this year.

In this context, a new roadmap feature discussed during the call and included in the roadmap is the option to import DNS, the web naming protocol, into ENS at no transaction costs, thus making it "gasless." This feature, slated for release in the third quarter of the year, has the potential to improve web accessibility to the ENS ecosystem and lower the barrier to entry for traditional internet users, the team noted.

“Gasless DNS names and expanded Layer 2 interoperability, which we aim to launch before the end of Q3, are the next steps in our goal to make ENS names the standard for decentralized digital identity in Web3,” Nick Johnson, ENS founder and lead developer, said in a statement to The Block. “These types of developments are key for us as we work towards simplifying onboarding and increasing the accessibility of Ethereum and crypto.”