In terms of cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin has been the talk of the town for a few years. Bitcoin is the most closely watched and traded cryptocurrency on the market today. In recent months, another cryptocurrency has been gaining popularity through the trading platform Coinbase. Another step forward for the currency occurred this past week as Ethereum will get its first top-level domain name.
A new collaboration between the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) and Minds + Machines Group (MMX), will allow Ethereum users to attach their addresses to a top-level internet domain name. As a result, it will be much easier for users of cryptocurrency exchanges to remember the identifiers associated with their assets and crypto wallet as a whole.
Looking at the entities separately, ENS is beneficial is that is the program which allows users to replace long addresses with more recognizable words or names. Those words are then attached to a. eth domain, similarly to naming and saving a word document (.docx). ENS itself was launched in 2017 and features “an automated registrar that allows anyone to register domain names ending in ‘.eth’” by utilizing an auction. In fact, two of the identifiers used, both foundation.eth and exchange.eth were claimed in an auction for $27,000 and $609,000 in Ethereum (ETH) respectively. On the other hand, Minds + Machines is a company which operates a variety of “top-level domains” within the internet’s Domain Name System (DNS).
The collaboration, unveiled last Friday, will enable Ethereum users to register their addresses to a .luxe domain, rather than .eth. The domain .luxe stands for “lets u xchange easily”. In total, the domain is very user-friendly and enables easy access to smart contracts and blockchain assets.
In a statement regarding the new collaboration, ENS lead develop Nick Johnson said, “We’re very excited to be helping advance integration between existing DNS-based name services and the Ethereum Name Service, improving usability for blockchain applications and users.”
In a later statement, the CEO of MMX, Toby Hall stated, “we already know from Ethereum’s test in its .eth zone that there is a real proven demand for word—based identifiers that are blockchain enabled.”
At this point, the collaboration has not officially launched but it is still in the works. MMX is hoping to have a trial period, or what they are referring to as a limited registration period, in October of this year. During this time, ENS users will be able to claim their .luxe domains which are equivalent o the .eth domains currently being used. MMX hopes that by the end of October, this stage will be complete and .luxe names will be available to the public.
