The Ethereum Name Service (ENS) Upgrade Proposal
The Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is actively pursuing the endorsement of its decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) for a significant upgrade to its naming protocol, known as ENSv2. This initiative, spearheaded by ENS founder Nick Johnson, entails a proposal aiming to enhance the current system by redesigning the registry architecture, which will offer greater flexibility in domain management and permissions.
Transition Phase and Domain Management
If the DAO grants its consent, a pause on new .eth domain registrations will occur during the transition phase to the updated protocol. However, current domain holders will be able to renew their names without needing to migrate immediately. This temporary freeze is expected to last for several hours, as new registrations will be halted on both the original and upgraded systems while the migration process is underway. Johnson assures that existing domain names will maintain their functionality throughout this process.
Administrative Privileges and Transition
A key part of the upgrade involves ENS Labs planning to cede its remaining administrative privileges over the new contracts to the DAO following the activation. The existing .eth names will also be preserved for their owners in the new system to enable a smoother transition when they decide to migrate.
Voting Process and Requirements
As of now, the proposal is in its draft form and needs to progress to an on-chain vote by the DAO to be put into action. According to the governance framework of ENS, for the executable proposals to pass, at least 1% of voters, equating to 1 million ENS votes, must participate, with a majority needed over a voting span of seven days. Once approved, there will be a compulsory minimum waiting period of two days before the upgrade can be executed. Currently, a specific voting date has yet to be determined.
