On Monday, The distributed domain protocol Ethereum Name Service, or ENS, launched its own governance token in an effort to distribute voting rights for its new decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, to active users of the ecosystem.
Cointelegraph spoke with Brantly Millegan, COO of ENS, to learn more about the nonprofit’s decision to switch to a DAO model and his thoughts on the power of the ENS community:
“ENS is an open public protocol. The core components of ENS are decentralized and run automatically (for example, no one can remove someone else’s .ETH name), but there are some things that require some human discretion. “
He noted that previously, ENS was controlled by a four-of-seven multi-signature, or multisig, scheme with members from related projects acting as key participants. They facilitated updates, managed the .ETH pricing mechanism for domain names, and managed ENS treasury funds.
Replacing this multi-signature and passing ENS governance over to the community through a DAO “has always been the plan,” however, according to Millegan:
“We’re doing it now because we think both ENS and the DAO space have matured enough.”
When users claim the ENS tokens allocated in the protocol’s recent airdrop, the service requires that participants immediately vote to ratify the proposed ENS Constitution and authorize the DAO to take over the functions of the multisig.
Community members must also delegate their future DAO voting power before claiming their tokens. The delegate process allows fewer active users to make decisions for the ENS community, rather than requiring constant interactions from all token holders in the space each time a new vote is required.. Although a large number of ENS contributors volunteered to act as potential delegates, users do not have to choose only from the platform’s suggested list.. Rather, they can delegate their votes to any address they want, including yours.
Regarding the distribution of ENS tokens and the operation of a fair governance model, Brantly told Cointelegraph:
“The ENS DAO will be one token-one vote, but we have chosen distribution rules that favor egalitarianism and users over speculators.”
He explained that the non-profit allocated tokens are based on the number of days a person has had even a single ENS name, rather than the number of domains a person has registered.
Users who paid renewal fees up to 8 years in the future are scheduled to receive an additional cache of tokens in the airdrop, and for people who have their ENS primary name set, the number of tokens they are entitled to is multiplied by two. Discord and Twitter participants of the protocol are also eligible for additional claims.
Ultimately, the DAO will be charged with spending any income received by the protocol nonprofit. In accordance with article 3 of the ENS Constitution, funds should be allocated to ENS development, the wider ecosystem and public goods within web3. Millegan noted that “there is no profit sharing motive” and that the token-based DAO system “allows for a great deal of flexibility.”
Within 24 hours of its launch, ENS’s new governance token had already reached a fully diluted valuation of $ 3.16 billion. A day later, as of press time, this number has exceeded $ 8 billion and continues to rise.
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