On December 14, the founder of the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) project, Nick Johnson, announced a major milestone in the history of the Ethereum blockchain naming system. ENS has now achieved decentralized governance, marking the end of an era during which the project’s root node was managed by members of the Ethereum community.
The passing of the torch: a crucial decision for decentralization
Until now, the ENS project’s root node was under the management of members of the Ethereum community. However, according to Johnson, the time for change has come. In a message addressed to the holders of the ENS root key, he expressed his support for this change of ownership. He stated on X: “It really is the end of an era. Here’s the message I just sent to the ENS root keyholders, asking for the transition of their remaining powers to the DAO.”
Johnson’s attached message indicates that the ENS DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization composed of and controlled by ENS token holders, voted unanimously to take control of the project’s root node. Johnson then executed a transaction to transfer control to the DAO address (wallet.ensdao.eth), removing all remaining responsibilities from the multisig and “retiring it entirely.” It remains to be seen whether the other multisig owners have approved the transaction.
A shift toward more open governance
The ENS DAO, an assembly of token holders, now becomes the central governance group that votes on project-related decisions by staking tokens. Prior to this decision, the DAO already held several ownership responsibilities, but it did not control the central root name of ENS.
The change of ownership grants the DAO specific capabilities related to the control of the ENS root node. This will allow the DAO to permanently create, manage, and lock top-level domains outside of the permanent and immutable .eth domain. It will also authorize the DAO to update reverse resolutions that map addresses to a name. Furthermore, the DAO will be able to introduce primary domain names on Layer 2 networks.
A snapshot indicates that the vote ended on December 15, 2023. Virtually 100% of the staked tokens, amounting to 1.9 million ENS, were in favor of DAO ownership. Johnson himself was one of the largest voters, staking 155,000 ENS in favor. Fewer than 17 ENS tokens were staked against the plan or used to abstain.
A new era for ENS
In conclusion, handing over control of the ENS root node to the DAO marks a major turning point toward a more open and decentralized governance. Token holders will now have an active role in decisions related to ENS, thereby shaping the future of this key Ethereum blockchain project.
