Dear Bankless Nation,

As the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) has become more popular in recent years, the NFT-based domain system has brought a whole new level of sociality to the cryptoeconomy via human-readable addresses.

With the introduction of the new Name Wrapper system today, the ENS landscape is notably now poised for even further flexibility and functionalities, enabling users to more effectively manage their domain names and opening up a host of new use cases in the process.

For today’s post, then, let’s delve into the basics of this novel system and why it has so much potential in web3!

-WMP (or should I say, wmp.eth?)

ENS Name Wrapper Has Arrived

ENS DAO's recent proposal, EP 3.5, garnered 2.6 million supporting votes and was executed today, initiating upgrades to several key ENS smart contracts but particularly to the “Name Wrapper” system.

In ENS circles, this upgrade has caused a wave of excitement thanks to how it significantly advances the ENS subdomain management process.

Why it matters

The new ENS Name Wrapper system enables users to convert their ENS subdomains into ERC1155 NFTs while allowing them to set various levels of ownership by burning "fuses."

Unlike the previous subname issuance method, which didn't have NFT status or transferability and allowed issuers to revoke ownership, the Name Wrapper provides customizable features and protections for subname holders.

More on fuses

Again, a “fuse” represents one of the various permissions inherent to an ENS name. By burning a fuse, a name owner (a.k.a “parent”) can revoke certain permissions, such as making a subdomain NFT (a.k.a. “child”) nontransferable.

In this way, fuses impact the relationship between names and subdomains, and once a fuse is burned the action cannot be undone until the expiry period. The expiry is determined by a name’s owner and marks the duration for which fuses remain active.

When the expiry is reached, all fuses reset, and ownership of the name might be lost if it's in an “Emancipated” or “Locked” state. That’s because names can exist in various states such as Unregistered, Unwrapped, Wrapped, Emancipated, and Locked. Emancipated names prevent the parent name owner from replacing the subname or burning additional fuses, while Locked names cannot be unwrapped, enabling the owner to control fuses as they please.

All that said, each state specifically defines the level of control over a name and its transferability. As such, the new Name Wrapper system brings extensive customizability, allowing users to manage permissions over their domain names effectively.

Potential utilities

The possibilities ahead are endless when it comes to Name Wrapper, but we do already have a sense of some low-hanging use cases we’ll likely see in short order.

For instance, in “A Deep Dive Into the ENS Name Wrapper,” serenae.eth noted that one interesting option will be having the ability to bulk create subdomains and then drop the wrapped NFTs into other peoples’ wallets, e.g. your fellow DAO members or your NFT collection holders.

Another possibility serenae.eth pointed out that’s sure to become popular is a new flow for selling or renting subnames. In other words, you’ll now be able to create a subname registrar contract to handle registrations and renewals for you, and users can interact with this contract to register their own subnames.

In this scenario, consider how you could burn fuses to set restrictions and decide whether you want to permanently sell subnames, where buyers could keep them as long as they wish, or rent subnames, where renters could call a renew function on your contract for temporary rentals.

How to get started

The Name Wrapper is live on mainnet now, so technically it’s already possible to begin wrapping names. However, a user-friendly management interface will officially be launched soon that will considerably streamline all aspects around the wrapping process. Be on the lookout for that by tracking updates from ENS or ENS DAO.

The big picture

The ENS Name Wrapper system is poised to revolutionize the way users interact with domain names in web3. From facilitating event ticketing to easily selling desirable subdomains, things are bound to get a lot more interesting from here as the first waves of people and projects start embracing this new technology and paving the way for further experiments!