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Name Wrapper: What are wrapped, emancipated and locked names?

What the Name Wrapper was, why ENSv2 supersedes it, and what wrapped, emancipated and locked mean for a name you still hold.

ENS App and Explorer are on the Sepolia testnet. Features may change before mainnet.

The Name Wrapper belongs to ENSv1; ENSv2 replaces it. It is a contract you can hand a name to, which issues you an ERC-1155 NFT (a token standard) in return and lets you lock the name down with Fuses: one-way switches that permanently remove an ability. ENSv2 does that job with roles instead, so there is no reason to wrap a name. If a name of yours can be upgraded to ENSv2, upgrade it. This article is the reference for names that are still wrapped.

Important: don't lock names or burn Fuses. Locked names may have upgrade limits under ENSv2; upgrading is the recommended path. [More on ENSv2]

A state diagram of a name's Name Wrapper states: register, wrap, unwrap, protect (to Emancipated), lock (to Locked) and expire back to Unregistered

A wrapped name sits in one of three states. The name's Fuses tab in the app shows which.

Wrapped

The Name Wrapper contract holds the name, and you hold the ERC-1155 NFT that proves you own it. If certain Fuses are not burnt, you can unwrap at any time, which destroys that NFT and returns the plain name to you. For a subname, the parent (the name above it, such as name.eth for sub.name.eth) can still replace it or burn parent-controlled Fuses on it.

Emancipated

The parent cannot replace the name or burn Fuses on it. You can still unwrap and rewrap.

Locked

The name cannot be unwrapped, ever, and its owner can burn further Fuses on it and on its subnames. This is the state to avoid: a locked name may not be able to upgrade to ENSv2. See What happens to a wrapped name when it upgrades?

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