Especially for newcomers in the crypto market, long alphanumeric codes cause confusion. To send a transaction to a friend, no name can be entered – you need the so-called public key. This can look like this, for example:

0x32Be343B94f860124dC4fEe278FDCBD38C102D88

But this not only causes confusion for newcomers, but unfortunately also leads repeatedly to erroneous transactions by typos. Unlike a bank, however, such a transaction can not be reversed. The “Ethereum Name Service” wants to remedy this situation.

Simple transactions for mass adaptation

The Ethereum Name Service (ENS ) was launched on May 4, 2017. The team, consisting of 9 people, has made it its goal to simplify the handling of Ethereum addresses. This makes it easier for new investors in particular to enter the world of cryptocurrencies, which is more than confusing at the beginning due to the high number of currencies and projects.

The website states:

Ethereum Name Service provides a secure and decentralized way to address resources both on- and offchain with simple, human-readable names.

It means instead of long numbers and letters, users can use the ENS to give their addresses names. For example, from

0x32Be343B94f860124dC4fEe278FDCBD38C102D88 -> myfriend.eth. Instead of typing in the long address, you can do a transaction using the much simpler name. The suffix “.eth” is used uniformly for all simplified addresses, as it is already known from Internet domains. As the name implies (or not), the ENS is based on Ethereum Blockchain’s Smart Contracts.

If you want to have a desired address, you can buy a .eth domain name via the platform in the form of an auction process (which should change soon). The auction is coordinated by the Blockchain.

In an ask-me-anything on reddit, the team yesterday talked about upcoming updates to the ENS. So the auction process is soon to be a thing of the past. In the future, there should be immediate registrations. In addition, there will soon be the possibility to create .eth addresses with 3-6 characters. The user interface is also being revised.

The service offered by ENS represents an important step in the mass adaptation of cryptocurrencies. Even if early adopters will have no problem typing in and remembering or copy-paste long addresses, for the average consumer, these are unnecessary changes that will discourage them from continuing to engage with the subject matter. Making transactions as easy as possible is an important step in making cryptocurrencies fit for the mass market.

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