Ethereum Name Service (ENS) and GoDaddy partner to link Web3 .eth names to Web2 domains at no additional cost.
ENS’s .eth domains offer a simplified way to register domain names for Web3, making complex wallet addresses readable to humans.
This partnership removes the barrier of high gas fees that previously discouraged users from transferring their domain names to ENS.
Integrating Web3 into traditional web domains
The partnership between GoDaddy and Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is a significant step in integrating Web3 into traditional domain names. Web3 users can now link their .eth domains with traditional URLs at no extra cost, facilitating the fusion of domain and blockchain technologies.
Developments and benefits of the partnership
Paul Nicks, President of Domains at GoDaddy, highlighted this development as ‘the merging of domain names and blockchain technologies,’ beneficial to both the Web2 and Web3 ecosystems. ENS made this fee-free transition possible by deploying new smart contracts for the resolution process.
This advancement allows DNS domain holders to achieve a new form of sovereignty by gaining increased control over their decentralized identities.
Unstoppable Domains and smart contract intellectual property
In July 2023, GoDaddy’s Web3 competitor, Unstoppable Domains, enabled users to purchase .eth names with added payment methods and features to streamline ENS domain management. All .eth domains purchased through Unstoppable are registered via the ENS smart contract and possess the same functionality as those registered directly via ENS.
In November 2023, ENS developers challenged a patent from Unstoppable Domains, asserting that Braden River Pezeshki, Matthew Everett Gould, and Bogdan Gusiev are the inventors of blockchain-utilizing domain technology. However, Nick Johnson, an ENS developer, argued that the patent was ‘entirely based on innovations developed by ENS and contained no new innovation from their side.’
