The Ethereum Name Service (ENS) introduced a governance proposal on Oct. 11 to launch ENSv2, a major architectural upgrade that allows domain holders to opt into a new registry while preserving legacy .eth names. According to an Oct. 12 governance bulletin, the ENS DAO vote remains pending, with no official launch date announced.
Under the proposal, existing ENSv1 users are not forced to upgrade and can renew their current domains indefinitely using a dedicated contract. However, domain owners who choose to migrate will permanently transfer management to ENSv2, burning their original tokens into an unretrievable smart contract designated as the Graveyard.
Subdomain Controls and Irreversible Tokens
The upgrade replaces the original 2017 registry with a hierarchical system, allowing individual domains to manage independent registries for subdomains. This architecture gives organizations and decentralized applications granular control to assign specific records or name permissions without delegating full administrative rights.
Migrating to ENSv2 requires depositing the ENSv1 token into the Graveyard contract, from which tokens cannot be extracted or returned. Once ENSv2 goes live, all new domain registrations will process exclusively through the upgraded infrastructure. The deployment will require a temporary suspension of new registrations lasting several hours while developers synchronize records, after which ENS Labs will transfer its remaining administrative permissions to the DAO.
Fee Adjustments, Stablecoin Payments, and Grace Periods
- Pricing Structure: Annual fees for names with five or more characters will rise 60% from $5 to $8, while three- and four-character names remain unchanged.
- Long-Term Discounts: Purchasing registrations of six years or longer reduces annual costs by approximately 44%.
- Stablecoin Integration: Payments will shift from variable ETH amounts to fixed fiat rates using USDC and DAI, aligning with broader adoption seen in protocols like Sky's USDS-USDC pools.
- Grace Period Changes: Migrated ENSv2 domains will see their grace period drop from 90 days to 28 days, compensated by a 62-day extension to registration expiry dates. Legacy ENSv1 names retain the 90-day window.
Why It Matters
The transition to ENSv2 marks a structural evolution for Web3 identity by decoupling identity management from rigid token contracts and removing price volatility through stablecoins. By keeping ENSv1 operational, the protocol avoids breaking critical integrations across existing wallet ecosystems while allowing enterprise users to utilize advanced subdomain delegation. The permanent nature of the Graveyard contract underscores the security trade-offs required when migrating core decentralized infrastructure without leaving backdoors.
