ENS is the Ethereum Name Service — a naming system built on Ethereum that replaces a long wallet address, like 0x71C7656EC7ab88b098defB751B7401B5f6d8976F, with something readable, like yourname.eth. You register a name, point it at your wallet, and anyone who knows it can send you crypto or look up your profile without needing the full address.

The most common use is giving your wallet a memorable alias: instead of sharing 0x1234…abcd, you share yourname.eth. Beyond payments, an ENS name can do quite a lot:

When you register a .eth name, two things are recorded on Ethereum. First, the ENS registry marks you as the owner. Second, a resolver is set — a small contract that stores the records attached to your name: your ETH wallet address, avatar, social links, and any other data you add.

When someone sends crypto using your .eth name, their wallet asks ENS: "what address does this name point to?" The resolver answers, and the transaction goes to the right place. You can update your records at any time — your name stays the same even if your wallet address changes.

Lookups run in both directions. A forward lookup goes from name → address: typing yourname.eth into a wallet finds your ETH address. A reverse lookup goes the other way: an app sees your address and looks up which name is set as primary for it. That's why setting a primary name matters — it's what makes apps show your name instead of your 0x... address.

ENS is a decentralised protocol governed by the ENS DAO. No single company owns or controls it. Names are stored on Ethereum as NFTs — you own your name outright for as long as you keep it registered.

You register a .eth name through the ENS App at app.ens.dev. Search for the name you want on the landing page; if it's available, you can register it. Registration is annual: you pay the fee in USD stablecoins (such as USDC), plus a small amount of ETH for gas, and sign the transactions in your wallet. The name is then yours to control — you manage its records, transfer ownership, and renew it before it expires.

ENS Explorer at explorer.ens.dev is the companion tool for inspecting and managing existing names in detail — resolver records, roles, token data, and more. See Register a .eth name for the step-by-step.

ENS and DNS are conceptually similar — both map names to resources — but the mechanics differ. DNS is centrally administered through registries, registrars, and authoritative servers. ENS is on-chain: names are managed by smart contracts on Ethereum, ownership is represented by NFTs, and resolution happens through public contracts any app can read. The protocol is designed to interoperate with DNS, but the apps currently issue and manage .eth names and their onchain subnames — that's what you can register and use today.

No, you don't. Apps that support ENS resolution display the name when one is set as primary. Apps that don't support ENS continue to show the wallet address. Most major wallets and many apps support resolution, but not universally.

Owning an ENS name doesn't automatically tell other apps to use it. You have to set it as your primary name — the reverse-lookup link that tells the network which of your names represents your wallet. See Set your primary name.

ENSv1 and ENSv2 are versions of the underlying contracts. Names registered on the v1 contracts can be upgraded to v2 from the ENS App dashboard — the upgrade preserves the name and its records but does not extend the registration. Renewing an upgraded name is a separate, second step. See How to migrate your name to ENSv2.

The canonical documentation lives at docs.ens.domains. For announcements and community discussion, see the ENS blog and the ENS Discord. For the underlying protocol specs, see the ENSIPs (ENS Improvement Proposals) listed in the docs. And if you have a question about a name you own, the support team here is the fastest route to a human.