Perspective | ENS: Why We Choose Ethereum Over Another Stove

The name of the Ethereum domain name service is not only because it supports the assignment of domain names to Ethereum addresses (ENS can support addresses of any cryptocurrency, but also non-blockchain data such as IPFS hash addresses and onion network .onion addresses ). It is also because it runs on the Ethereum blockchain and accepts ETH as a payment method.

Other blockchain-based domain name projects, no matter new or old, often choose to start their own customized blockchain and issue independent tokens.

This article is intended to explain why we believe that using Ethereum and ETH is the best way for blockchain-based domain name projects.

Some stories

The first more important blockchain-based domain name project was released in 2011, called Namecoin (domain name currency), and used its own proprietary blockchain.

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At that time, if you wanted to create a blockchain-based application, you had to start a new blockchain specifically for that purpose (because it is difficult to develop applications on the Bitcoin blockchain). This involves a lot of work, including having enough knowledge to create and maintain a new underlying blockchain protocol, finding a group of miners to protect the security of the chain, and finally getting people to really start using this new chain.

Ethereum changed all this after its successful launch in 2015. Starting a new blockchain-based domain name project has become much simpler, and it can also directly take advantage of the security, user base, and The infrastructure that exists on the Ethereum blockchain.

Other blockchain-based domain name projects have chosen to follow the path of domain name currency. For example, Handshake recently released their blockchain and corresponding token HNS, and FIO is also preparing to launch a new blockchain and token in the near future. (They also created some new top-level domains (TLDs) unnecessarily, which will inevitably conflict with the domain name space of DNS. We feel that this is not good for users and it is not conducive to the introduction of blockchain technology in the Internet domain name field —— Of course these are off topic, you can take a look at this article .) (Translator's Note: Chinese translation see the hyperlink at the end of the text "Why ENS does not create more top-level domain names")

What are the benefits of customizing the domain name blockchain and tokens?

Running a domain name service on a customized blockchain does have many obvious technical advantages: smaller blockchain size, faster transaction speeds, lower transaction costs, and less attack surface. I will explain and respond in turn.

More compact blockchain volume

If you want to get the full set of security benefits of ENS (or any Ethereum application), you have to run a full Ethereum node yourself, which not only stores the ENS data, but also the data of all other applications running on Ethereum. If you use a customized domain name blockchain, all nodes only need to store domain name data, and the storage space occupied by the blockchain will be smaller and easier to run.

However, the security of the customized domain name blockchain will definitely be worse (assuming that compared to Ethereum, there are not so many miners mining on this customized chain and fewer full nodes). Furthermore, the cost of running Ethereum nodes is also affordable for many people; and this cost may be further reduced through Ethereum light clients and sharding.

Transaction speed and fees

This benefit is actually insignificant compared to using Ethereum. On Ethereum, update an ENS record. If you are willing to wait a few minutes for transaction confirmation, you only need to pay about 0.01 USD in ETH; if you are in a hurry, it only takes about 0.04 USD to complete it in one minute.

Attack surface

This also depends on the situation of the customized blockchain itself.

If a customized blockchain can support the same programmability as Ethereum, the complexity of the blockchain is about the same as Ethereum; if not, it may lack some key functions.

In addition, because Ethereum is much more commonly used, it has a large developer community to maintain, modify, and improve Ethereum, which is something that custom blockchains are difficult to replicate.

Use Ethereum and ETH for more benefits

There are many obvious benefits to running a domain name service and using ETH on Ethereum, and we believe it is far better than using a custom domain name blockchain and token.

Benefits from Ethereum

The most obvious is that ENS can get all the security , robustness , censorship resistance , decentralization , and regular upgrades of the Ethereum protocol from Ethereum .

In particular, I would like to point out some benefits that have not been fully understood:

• Programmability and interactivity : As long as it runs on Ethereum, ENS can become another "building block" on Ethereum. You can use Solidity to program your domain name, can do some cool things (such as belonging to an Ethereum-based DAO game), and even let your domain name automatically respond to smart contracts on Ethereum that have nothing to do with domain names . Customized domain name blockchains have absolutely no such interactivity.
• Ecosystem and infrastructure : ENS native .ETH domain name is NFT (non-homogeneous token) compatible with ERC721, which means that a .ETH domain name can be saved in any NFT wallet and can be used in any NFT market (such as OpeaSea ) sell. ENS also benefits from being able to be easily added to the infrastructure that is easily available in the Ethereum ecosystem, such as the main Ethereum library, MetaMask browser wallet, TruffleSuite development kit, MyEtherWallet web wallet, and more.

Benefits from ETH

Using ETH instead of its own token means that users can get all the convenience , supporting infrastructure, and the extensive distribution and market liquidity of ETH. Customized domain tokens will only add unnecessary friction.

in conclusion

We have a common goal with those projects that use customized domain name blockchains: we hope to introduce the decentralization and censorship resistance brought about by the blockchain in the Internet domain name world. We firmly believe that developing and using ETH on Ethereum is the best way to achieve these goals, and can also bring new features that are customarily lacking in the domain name blockchain, such as interaction with other Ethereum smart contracts.

This is why we have been doing ENS on Ethereum and it will not change for the foreseeable time.

While doing so, ENS is also using Ethereum to supplement the Internet . Every new feature of ENS, especially those outside the Ethereum community (such as DNS records and domain name space), has strengthened ENS and Ethereum as part of the Internet infrastructure.

(Finish)

Original link: https://medium.com/the-ethereum-name-service/why-ens-uses-ethereum-and-eth-not-a-bespoke-blockchain-and-token-36f86727e71f Author: Brantly Millegan translation: A Jian

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