Over the next few months, we plan on making 3–6 character .eth names available in a three step process. We previously explained the three step process here.

The first step is a reservation process. It will allow people and projects to claim their 3–6 character .eth name before remaining names are made available for auction and, finally, instant registration.

This post explains how the reservation process will work.

Key details

What: Reservation process for 3–6 character .eth names

Dates: Submission period starts July 11, 2019 and runs 30 days to August 10, 2019 [UPDATE 08/08/19, submission period extended to August 17, 2019]. The decision period then lasts 15 days.

Link: → https://reserve.ens.domains/

Why are we having a reservation process?

ENS is more useful the less surprising it is. Being less surprising means that known projects can get the name that best represents them. Also, the likelihood of projects adopting ENS is proportional to how well they can represent themselves with it.

This topic’s been under discussion for some time. You can find related discussions here.

After much discussion and debate, the ENS team has determined that implementing the following process will be the most effective way to achieve the stated goals.

How it will work

Public applications must reference an existing DNS domain name, and specify the ENS name they wish to claim. The DNS domain must have been registered prior to May 4, 2019. Applications may be submitted at the link specified above, which will be published on July 11, 2019.

Note that application information, including your email address, is visible on-chain in plaintext. If you are concerned about this, we recommend using a temporary email address.

1) Reservation requests must be received during the reservation process window

The reservation process window opens at 00:00UTC July 11, 2019 and closes at 00:00 UTC August 10, 2019 [UPDATE 08/08/19, submission period extended to August 17, 2019].

2) The ENS domain being claimed must meet the following criteria

To qualify, the domain being used to support the claim must meet the following criteria:

Be 3–6 characters long

Must be a DNS second-level domain (2LD)

Must have been registered on or before May 4, 2019

And the ENS name being claimed must be one of:

An exact match for the existing DNS domain (eg, foo.com -> foo.eth)

The DNS domain with the suffix ‘eth’ removed (eg, asseth.fr -> ass.eth)

The concatenation of domain and TLD (eg, foo.com -> foocom.eth)

Each application must be accompanied by the fee for a year’s registration ($5 in ETH for a 5–6 character name, $160 in ETH for a 4 character name, and $640 in ETH for a 3 character name).

Before the public application is submitted, the owner of the DNS domain must create a TXT record on a specific subdomain with a predetermined value to demonstrate their ownership of the DNS domain, to validate the claim. This record must remain in place at least until the claim is approved, declined, or withdrawn.

If an application is successful, the claimant is issued the name with 365 days’ registration period (this can be extended as desired). If an application is unsuccessful, the fee will be returned to the claimant.

3) The ENS team will review each submission for validity

Because this is a subjective process, we’re inclined to set quite a low bar to prove validity.

For example, if the submitted DNS domain is only a domain parking page, we’ll reject the request. If the submitted DNS domain has any kind of web presence and we can find people talking about it as a real project, we’ll approve the request.

Our goal is to exclude low effort attempts to claim a name that’s not actually being used for anything.

4) The submission that can demonstrate it’s been operating the longest wins

If multiple valid claims are received for the same ENS domain, the project that can demonstrate it has been operating the longest between the claimants will be awarded the ENS name.

5) The ENS team will have a 15 day period to make decisions

As soon as submissions close on August 10, 2019 [UPDATE 08/08/19, submission period extended to August 17, 2019], the ENS team will make all decisions within 15 days. We reserve the right to extend that decision making period, e.g. if we receive an overwhelming number of reservation requests.

All claims are decided based on the sole discretion of the ENS team. Decisions are final.

Questions?

If you have questions about how this process will work, please feel free to ask in our forum or Gitter channel, or email us at reserve@ens.domains.