What is an ENS Domain?

The Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is a distributed, open and extensible naming system based on the Ethereum blockchain

What is an ENS Name Used for?

If someone wants to send us Ethereum, an ERC-20 token like $ENS coin, or an Ethereum-based NFT, they can send it to our ENS name instead of copying and pasting the longer and less user-friendly wallet address.

0x381A8Db83976d6493F60dD283b20390f996E46CBe own the ENS name ‘blockfrens.eth’. This ENS name maps to the Ethereum wallet address: 0x381a8db83976d6493f60dd283b20390f996e46cb.

Is ENS (.eth) Similar to DNS (.com)?

ENS has similar goals to DNS, the Internet’s Domain Name Service, but has a significantly different architecture due to the capabilities and constraints provided by the Ethereum blockchain.

Like DNS, ENS operates on a system of dot-separated hierarchical names called domains, with the owner of a domain having complete control over subdomains.

What Else Can You Do With ENS?

ENS’s job is to not only map human-readable names like ‘blockfrens.eth’ to machine-readable identifiers such as a cryptocurrency address, but it also allows you to resolve content hashes and metadata. On top of that, ENS names are also NFTs and can be traded and sold on the market.

What Are Content Hashes?

A content hash, similar to an IP address, is a unique identifier for hosted content (i.e., files, images, websites, etc…)

However, unlike IP addresses that point to a location where the content is stored, content hashes are the content itself.

What is Metadata?

Data that identifies other data is known as metadata.

A token’s metadata usually includes its name, description, image URL, token id, attributes, and/or other essential characteristics.

How Do I Get an ENS Name?

The first step to acquire your ENS name will be to head over to app.ens.domains and check if your name is available.

If it is, connect your wallet and register the name. If not, don’t give up; the name may be set to expire soon; check back to see if it becomes available again at a later date.