Finding the Next ENS: A Comprehensive Review of Public Chain Domain Name Protocols

Author: Allen, PANews

Despite the bear market, Ethereum's decentralized domain name service ENS continues to grow rapidly, with the number of independent addresses exceeding 500,000 in July, and 378,442 new ENS domain names registered, surpassing the previous record set in May (365,652), reaching an all-time high.

Similar to how various public chains are laying out their NFT tracks, other public chains are gradually launching their own domain services. What is the current development status? PANews has found that public chains including Solana, Avalanche, Cronos, Polkadot, Tezos, Flow, and Evmos all have domain protocols, most of which were launched this year. Additionally, some domain protocols focus on multi-chain development, including Unstoppable Domains, .bit, TrustDomains, etc. In terms of total transaction volume and registration numbers, Unstoppable Domains and Solana's on-chain domain protocol perform the best, but overall, there is still a significant gap compared to ENS.

Bonfida

In addition to providing decentralized domain services for Solana ecosystem users, Bonfida is also the flagship front end of the Serum decentralized trading protocol. Bonfida also offers programmatic trading bots, Serum API, and more. Unlike the ENS renewal model, Bonfida adopts a one-time fee model, meaning that once purchased, the domain will permanently belong to the user. The current fee standards for different character lengths (paid in the platform token FIDA) are as follows:

In addition to registering new domains on the platform, users can also participate in domain auctions from other users, or directly purchase on NFT trading markets. Currently, there are 11 NFT trading platforms integrated with Solana domains, including Yawww, Hyperspace, Magic Eden, Digital Eyes, Solanart, Alpha Art, Solsea, FTX NFTs, Holaplex, Artemis, and Burnt Finance. As of July 28, the total transaction volume of Solana domains is approximately $3.9 million, with a total of about 180,000 domains, of which about 130,000 are active domains, and the number of wallet addresses holding only one domain is approximately 50,000.

Avvy Domains

Avvy Domains is a decentralized domain protocol in the Avalanche ecosystem, officially launched at the end of May 2022, supporting the entire Avalanche ecosystem including its subnets. Similar to ENS, the registration fee for Avvy Domains is calculated based on the length and duration of the characters. The registration fee for a 3-character domain is $640/year, for 4 characters it is $160/year, and for 5 characters and above, it is $5/year. Currently, the total registration volume is approximately 8,600.

Avvy Domains comply with the ERC 721 standard and can currently be traded on three NFT trading platforms: NFTrade, Joepegs, and Kalao, with trading primarily concentrated on the Joepegs platform. As of July 28, the total transaction volume of Avvy Domains is approximately 20.85 AVAX, about $480 (based on AVAX at $23), with Joepegs and Kalao accounting for approximately 86% and 14% of the transactions, respectively. Additionally, the floor price of Avvy Domains on Joepegs is about $12, while on Kalao it is about $8.

Cronos Name Service

Cronos Name Service (CNS) is a decentralized domain protocol on the Cronos network, officially launched on April 28. The Cronos network is established by the cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com. Like most domain protocols, CNS also adopts a renewal model. For a 1-year period, the registration fee for a 3-character domain is $420, for a 4-character domain it is $170, and for 5 characters and above, it is $15.

As of July 28, the total registration volume of CNS is 4,350, with 3-character domains accounting for about 96%, and 4-character domains about 2.6%. Compared to the initial launch, the registration volume of new domains has significantly decreased. According to data from EbisusBay, the largest NFT trading platform in the Cronos ecosystem, the total transaction volume of CNS is approximately 7,000 CRO, about $910 (based on CRO at $0.13), with a floor price of about $6.

Polkadot Name System

Polkadot Name System (PNS) is a decentralized domain protocol in the Polkadot ecosystem, officially launched on April 26. It currently mainly focuses on 8-10 character domain services, with 8-character domain registration opening on July 14. It is understood that PNS will integrate multi-chain addresses and assets in the future, supporting identity verification on Web2 platforms such as Twitter and Github, as well as domain resolution for NFT assets.

Like ENS, PNS also adopts a renewal model. For a 1-year domain, the total fee is about $25, which includes a $20 registration fee and a $5 annual fee. Currently, PNS only supports MetaMask wallets, and users need to pay with the public chain token GLMR of the Polkadot smart contract parachain Moonbeam. As of July 28, the registration volume of PNS is approximately 10,361, with the top 100 wallet addresses holding about 46%, and the address with the largest holdings accounting for about 26% of the total.

Tezos Domains

Tezos Domains is a decentralized domain protocol in the Tezos ecosystem, with a fee structure similar to ENS. The annual registration fee for a 3-character domain is 100 XTZ, for a 4-character domain it is 25 XTZ, and for 5 characters and above, it is 1 XTZ. Expired domains will undergo a one-week auction.

As of July 28, the total registered volume of Tezos Domains is approximately 96,000. According to data from objkt.com, the largest NFT trading market in the Tezos ecosystem, the number of independent wallet addresses is close to 57,000, with a total transaction volume of about 1,500 XTZ, approximately $3,600 (based on XTZ at $1.6), and a floor price of 1 XTZ.

FlownsDomain

Flowns is a decentralized domain protocol focused on the NFT public chain Flow, which opened 4-character domain registration on July 5. Currently, 3-character domain registration has not yet been opened, and the annual registration fee for 4-character domains is approximately 29.6 FLOW, while for 5 characters and above, it is 0.32 FLOW.

As of July 28, according to data from the Flowns official website, the total registration volume is approximately 43,000, with total revenue of about 11,000 FLOW, approximately $20,000 (based on FLOW at $1.8). Users can currently trade Flowns domains on NFT trading platforms such as Mynft and Matrix Market.

Cosmos Series

The Cosmos ecosystem's EVM-compatible chain Evmos domain service Evmos Name Service (ENS) was officially launched on June 24, adopting a fee structure similar to ENS. For a 1-year period, the registration fee for a 3-character domain is approximately 16 EVMOS, for a 4-character domain it is about 11 EVMOS, and for 5 characters and above, it is about 6.3 EVMOS.

The domain service on the Cosmos ecosystem's smart contract chain Juno Network (de)NS currently has a registration fee of 8 JUNO for 2-4 character domains and 5 JUNO for 5 characters and above. (de)NS, like Solana domains, also offers permanent domains, meaning that once purchased, the domain will always belong to the user.

In addition to the public chains mentioned above, other public chains are also laying out in this area, such as Algorand launching NFDomains, Dfinity launching IC Naming, Telos soon launching Telos Name Service, and Terra Name Service soon migrating to Terra 2.0. Due to the similar mechanisms of domain protocols and the fact that most of the heat has not yet risen, further details will not be elaborated here.

Behind the rush of public chains launching their decentralized domain protocols, there is also the public chain Handshake positioned as a decentralized domain system, as well as some multi-chain decentralized domain protocols aimed at solving the fragmentation issue of various public chain domain protocols, including Unstoppable Domains, .bit, TrustDomains, Nomspace, and Space ID, among which Unstoppable Domains performs the best. As of July 28, its total registration volume is approximately 1.9 million, with a total transaction volume of about $2.1 million according to OpenSea data.

Additionally, .bit has evolved from a pure domain protocol into a decentralized identity (DID) product. Since decentralized domains support linking any type of data, such as wallet addresses and personal profile information, they can provide different services to users through various applications. The close integration with wallet addresses can also serve as an identity marker in the Web3 world. Compared to directly building DID products, gradually evolving into DID through decentralized domains may yield better results.

Compared to the popularity of ENS, the heat of other public chain domains has not yet risen, whether in terms of transaction volume or registered user numbers, often showing a significant gap compared to ENS. This is partly related to the development of the public chain ecosystem itself and also due to the relatively short launch time of other domain protocols. As ENS ignites domain services and the public chain ecosystem gradually enriches, whether the domain services of other public chains and multi-chain domain protocols will also usher in a wave of growth in the future remains to be seen.