The Namewrapper is the ENSv1 contract that turns .eth names into ERC-1155 NFTs and adds fuses — permanent permission locks. ENSv2 supersedes it: the same goals are covered by ENSv2's role system, which is more flexible. The Namewrapper still matters for understanding wrapped ENSv1 names that haven't migrated yet, and that's what this article covers. If you hold a wrapped name, the path forward is to migrate it to ENSv2 — see the end of this article.

It wraps an ENSv1 .eth name as an ERC-1155 NFT, adding fuses (permission flags), NFT representation for subnames, and a single owner/manager model. Wrapped ENSv1 names are the only surface where Explorer's Fuses tab is meaningful — for any ENSv2 name, the Fuses tab shows a Fuses not available card explaining that fuses only apply to wrapped ENSv1 names.

An unwrapped .eth name is an ERC-721 NFT from the BaseRegistrar, with the Manager role stored separately in the Registry. Subnames of unwrapped names are managed in the Registry but have no NFT representation. A wrapped name is an ERC-1155 NFT from the Namewrapper, with Owner and Manager collapsed into one; subnames of wrapped names are themselves wrapped and tokenised. Both are ENSv1 constructs — ENSv2 names use neither model.

A fuse is a permanent, one-way restriction on a wrapped ENSv1 name. Burning a fuse permanently turns off a permission — "cannot transfer", "cannot unwrap", "cannot set resolver" — and the fuse stays burnt for the rest of the name's current registration. The point is irrevocable commitments: you burn the relevant fuse to prove on-chain that some action will never be taken with the name. For example, to guarantee to a counterparty that a name's subnames will never be revoked, you burn the relevant fuse — the on-chain state is the proof. If you're not managing a wrapped ENSv1 name with a deliberate need for commitment, you'll never burn one.

A reversible flag wouldn't work as a commitment — the owner could simply un-burn it before taking the disallowed action. One-way is what makes the on-chain state a reliable signal to other parties. The cost is real: there's no undo during the registration term. Once burnt, a fuse stays burnt until the name expires and is re-registered (a fresh registration resets fuses on the new term).

No. Fuses are a feature of the Namewrapper, which only wraps ENSv1 names. ENSv2 uses the Roles system instead — each role (Set Resolver, Set Subregistry, Renew, Unregister, Can transfer admin) is granted or revoked via the Add user form on a name's Roles tab. Where a fuse is an irreversible flag, a role is a revocable permission — same goal, more flexible mechanism. This is the main reason the Namewrapper isn't the recommended path for anything you're setting up today: register on ENSv2 (or migrate) and use roles.

On the Fuses tab of a Name page. For an ENSv2 name — almost every name you'll look at — the tab shows the Fuses not available card described above. This is expected, not an error: the tab appears on every name's sidebar regardless of version. For a wrapped ENSv1 name, the tab lists the name's fuses and shows which are burnt.

No. The Namewrapper is superseded by the ENSv2 contracts, so wrapping isn't the recommended path for new names. If you want fine-grained permissions, upgrade (migrate) the name to ENSv2 and use its role system, which covers the same ground as fuses without the irreversibility.

Fuses convert to roles and restrictions carry across. See What happens to a wrapped name when it migrates? — and if migration is blocked, Why can't I migrate my wrapped name or subname?

No — a wrapped ENSv1 name can be unwrapped back to the ERC-721 state, unless the "cannot unwrap" fuse has been burnt. If that fuse is burnt (often intentionally, to signal commitment), unwrapping is off for the current registration cycle; the name becomes unwrappable again after expiry and re-registration.

Updating a name's roles recalculates its Token ID — this applies to wrapped ENSv1 names and ENSv2 names alike. See Why did my name's token ID change?