Ethereum Name Service Announces Partnership With Top DNS Provider GoDaddy

Ethereum Name Service, a registry service allowing users to associate Ethereum wallet addresses with easily readable “.eth” domains, has inked a deal with GoDaddy, the leading internet domain registrar.

Announced on Feb. 5, GoDaddy domain name holders can now easily link their addresses to Ethereum Name Service (ENS) names without requiring technical expertise or incurring additional fees.

GoDaddy allows customers to purchase easily readable Domain Name System (DNS) addresses linked to Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to improve the user experience for internet users.

“This collaboration signifies a major step toward bridging the gap between the Domain Name System (DNS) and blockchain technology,” ENS said.

“ENS, much like DNS, is a public good and a core part of the internet infrastructure,” added Nick Johnson, the founder of ENS. “By pairing up ENS names and GoDaddy domains, we will streamline the way users interact with web domains, blending the familiarity of the DNS with the potential of blockchain technology.”

“Partnering with ENS presents our customers with a unique opportunity to experience the fusion of domain names and blockchain technologies, bringing some great benefits for users in both areas,” said Paul Nicks, president of domains at GoDaddy.

The price of Ethereum Name Service’s ENS token is up 6% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.

ENS sues GoDaddy

The partnership comes despite ENS filing a lawsuit against GoDaddy on Sept. 5, 2022.

The lawsuit asserted that GoDaddy unlawfully sold the domain eth.link despite the address remaining registered with the DNS provider until July 2023. The address was sold to rival domain registrar, Dynadot, and then auctioned to Manifold Finance.

The previous owner of the address, Virgil Griffith, is currently serving a five-year prison sentence for discussing the use of cryptocurrency in the context of sanctions evasion while speaking at a conference in North Korea. Griffith was unable to renew the domain’s registration from prison.

ENS won the suit and regained control over the address.

ENS bubble pops

ENS domains were one of the few crypto segments to enjoy rocketing growth during the depths of the 2022 bear trend.

While the number of ENS domain registrations dipped slightly in Q1 2022 after posting a record high of 109.280 in December 2021, the figure surged throughout the following six months to produce an all-time high of 437,365 registrations in September 2022.

The 2022 surge in ENS domain registrations coincided with traders speculating on the scarcity of domains spanning just three or four letters in total.

However, the ENS frenzy died down in late 2022, with the number of new registrations trending between 20,000 and 50,000 since the start of 2023. The floor price of three-letter ENS domains is also down 80% since September 2022 at 0.2 ETH, according to Vision.

More than 2M domains are currently registered through ENS.