The Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is officially seeking approval from its decentralized autonomous organization to activate a comprehensive upgraded naming protocol directly on the Ethereum mainnet, marking a significant milestone for one of the blockchain’s most prominent decentralized identity projects.
Nick Johnson, the founder of ENS, has formally submitted an executable draft proposal aimed at launching ENSv2, which represents the next evolutionary phase of the protocol. If the decentralized community votes to approve the measure, the upgrade will freeze new domain registrations on the original ENS registrar contract. However, existing domain holders will retain the uninterrupted ability to continue renewing their human-readable blockchain addresses.
The introduction of ENSv2 is designed to modernize the underlying infrastructure of the naming service. Specifically, the upgrade introduces a redesigned registry architecture that offers significantly more flexible domain management capabilities and granular permission structures. Furthermore, as part of the transition plan, ENS Labs intends to transfer its remaining administrative control and oversight over the newly upgraded contracts directly to the DAO, further decentralizing the governance and operation of the protocol.
According to the proposal details, new dot-eth registrations will migrate over to the upgraded system once all existing domain records have been fully synchronized. Johnson has cautioned the community that during this critical transition window, new registrations will be temporarily unavailable on both the legacy and upgraded versions of the protocol for a period lasting several hours.
For the vast majority of current users, the transition is designed to be entirely frictionless. Existing domain holders are not required to migrate their names manually, and all current .eth names will continue to function normally without any interruption to their underlying records or associated decentralized applications. In addition, ENS Labs has reserved all existing .eth names for their rightful current owners on the new system, ensuring that users retain full ownership and can choose to migrate their assets whenever they feel ready to do so.
At present, the activation proposal remains in the draft stage of development and must successfully navigate the formal governance process by advancing to an onchain DAO vote before any implementation can take place.
Under the established governance rules governing the ENS ecosystem, executable proposals must satisfy specific participation and consensus criteria. Specifically, a proposal requires at least one percent voter participation, which translates to a minimum of one million ENS votes cast, alongside a majority approval threshold during a mandatory seven-day voting period. Should the community vote to approve the upgrade, the deployment will additionally be subjected to a minimum two-day timelock period before final execution occurs on the blockchain. As of publication, an exact date for the upcoming DAO vote has not yet been officially announced by the protocol’s leadership.
