What is ENS?
Well, it's got the potential to change the internet forever.
And you don't want to be left out.
Find out why.
Let's get it!
Welcome to BitBoy Crypto!
My name is Ben.
Today, we're talking about ENS.
And this stands for Ethereum Name Service.
It's a service that links your Ethereum address to a domain name of your choosing.
It works very similar to the way an email address works.
You pick the name you want as an address,
and you can easily tell people where to find you.
Now, here's something interesting a lot of people don't know.
You may see on Twitter that it's a very popular trend
to put your name .eth in your bio,
but did you know a data poll reveals that only 1/3 of those people
actually have the matching domain name to what they have in their profile?
Now, there's also a similar service called DNS.
This stands for Domain Name Service.
It's an essential building block for the conventional internet.
It allows website hosts to create unique names for their online homes.
But ENS is much more secure than DNS
because the ENS is secured by the Ethereum blockchain
instead of by centralized servers.
Now, the ENS, well, it's much easier to remember,
especially when compared to the long alphanumeric addresses
that are associated with most crypto wallets.
So, here's how to use ENS.
Signing up, well, it's very easy.
On the official ENS website,
which is ens.domains,
you can type in the address to see if it's available.
It's relatively cheap too.
Only $5 to secure your domain for a year.
And also I'd like to say there's no affiliate link in this video
and, obviously, this is not a paid video or an endorsement of ENS at all.
We're just trying to give you the information.
Now, you can also use the ENS application to transfer ownership of the domain
or renew for future years.
That's right. You can create a business by buying some of these addresses
and reselling them on the conventional internet.
We call this domain squatting.
But I'm not sure if we can call this ENS squatting
because most people in crypto, well, they skip leg day.
ENS domains are also NFTs which can be bought and sold on NFT marketplaces,
making the ENS domain squatting business much easier
because you have a place where you can buy and sell them very easily.
Alright. So let's talk about the history of ENS.
There are numerous competitors in this space,
and there have been for years including, first and foremost, Unstoppable Domains.
But ENS ended up getting more of a network effect
because it was supported by prominent Ethereum and NFT influencers.
These are some of the first to add .eth to their profiles on Twitter,
like I mentioned earlier.
And ENS cemented that lead by the launch of its airdrop,
which instantly made it one of the most recognized protocols in the crypto industry.
That ENS airdrop was one of the most popular in the history of Ethereum.
It gave free tokens to anyone who registered an ENS domain.
And tokenomics on the airdrop, well, they were very strong,
which is pretty rare.
There were no VCs backing the project.
A significant portion of the platform funds were allocated for the airdrop
and the future treasury,
with 25% going to users in the airdrop, 25% going to the team and other contributors
and then 50% for the DAO's community treasury.
A ton of people use their ENS as their identity on Twitter and other social media platforms,
but also a significant portion of the volume of ENS
comes from people looking to do the domain squatting business.
Some people have made a ton of money getting in early
to some of those domains that were highly sought.
Domains associated with numbers,
well, they're also popular due to NFTs.
If a collector has Bored Ape No. 69,
they may want to get an ENS associated with that Ape.
But remember, this is a warning for all speculators out there.
The market is not very liquid.
And it could take forever to get a sale when you put one up that you're squatting on.
Some sellers who bought domains very early, well, they're still waiting on buyers.
The domain squatting business is definitely a long-term endeavor,
so don't think you're going to buy a domain and flip it the next week
to be able to get massive profits.
There's also another couple use cases for ENS.
It's been instrumental in the development of a Sign-in with Ethereum mechanism.
It's a feature that allows users to sign in to all their Web2 accounts
with their Ethereum address
similar to how people have the option to do with Facebook or Google.
This can also be used in real life cases as well.
Japanese developer Hideyoshi Moriya posted two different videos to his Twitter profile
where he unlocked his car from his app by using his ENS domain.
Very interesting stuff.
Overall, ENS, it's very interesting.
Personally myself, I don't own any .eth addresses,
but it is something I've been interested in doing.
Who knows? Maybe one day we'll check it out.
Alright, guys.
Drop down comments below.
Let me know what you think about ENS.
Do you prefer ENS or Unstoppable Domains?
I'd love to hear your opinion on that.
That's all I got.
Be blessed.
BitBoy out.