Cover photo

ENS DAO Newsletter #42

08/29/23

ENS DAO Newsletter #42 — 08/29/2023

📰 Newsletter Roundup (tl;dr)

  • ENS Labs Update: CY 2022 Financial Report

  • Save the Date: ENS Happy Hour — 09/23

  • Community Updates: NameSys launches on Mainnet, ENS merchandise now available

  • Meta-Governance: Small Grants update, Endaoment review, validator diversity

  • Public Goods: Grantee highlights (SheFi), hackathons, discussing public goods funding

  • Ecosystem: Gasless DNSSEC updates, ENS on Swarm, new grantees

☀️ Welcome!

Welcome to the ENS DAO Newsletter:

—

🗓 Calendar

Refer to ENS DAO Calendar for ENS DAO working group calls and other events.

—

🚩 Upcoming Events

—

🗳️ Recent Proposals

Streamlining DAO Voting

Based on delegate feedback, the Meta-Governance working group will move to consolidate proposals within a voting period. Please note that some proposals are still under review and subject to change. Voting periods will be scheduled regularly, preferably at the end of each month.

Furthermore, anyone with a minimum of 100k $ENS can submit an executable proposal on Snapshot at any time. If a proposal gains popularity in the governance forum, the stewards, along with alisha.eth, will prioritize it for a vote during the designated voting window.

Thank you for your ongoing engagement and active participation in our governance process.

Note: The Meta-Governance working group will move to consolidate proposals into a voting period — to be scheduled at the end of each month. For more information, please review @5pence.eth thread on streamlining the voting process.

—

✏️ Draft Proposals:

For details on the ENS DAO proposal process see our Governance Docs.

—

ENS Labs Updates

ENS Labs 2022 Financials

@khori.eth, Executive Director of ENS Labs, has shared a succinct CY 2022 financial report — they have been rigorously updating financial records, finalizing catch-up bookkeeping for 2020 and 2021, and are currently in the process of completing and auditing its books for 2022 with the help of a Singapore-based accounting firm.

In their CY 2022 financial update, a significant point of concern has been the higher-than-expected legal expenses. To address this, ENS Labs is actively collaborating with Meta-Gov stewards to strategize on the legal needs of the ENS DAO.

Review the report: ENS Labs 2022 Financials — 08.25.28

—

ENS Web Update — July 2023

ENS rolled out a series of updates to enhance functionality and user experience. They’ve introduced a public roadmap to keep the community abreast of completed, ongoing, and upcoming initiatives. Wallet support has expanded to include Ledger and Argent, making the service more versatile. The ENS Manager App now features a “grace period” display in the “more” tab and allows users to add their Telegram handles to their profiles. Other tweaks include improved transaction handling, especially for canceled and replaced transactions.

The team page has been updated, a Universal resolver deployed, and ENS contracts have also been introduced to the Sepolia testnet. ENS has launched its own blog platform, adding new features and organizing content, including podcasts and town hall meetings, in one place. ENSjs, the JavaScript library for ENS, has reached functional completeness, and the focus is now on stability and environment compatibility. Several bug fixes and other updates, including UI enhancements and support for special characters, have also been implemented.

Review: ENS Web Update — July 2023 — 08.15.23

—

ENS Development

Integration: NameStone x Mailchain x ENS

NameStone, an ENS subdomain provider, announced support for Mailchain a Web3 communication layer with a focus on email. This integration allows anyone to send email to subname holders, wallet-to-wallet, direct from the community page. — 08.16.23

—

Integration: Interface x ENS

Interface, a social app designed to aggregate and humanize wallet activities across various blockchain networks, protocols, and platforms, announced support for ENS; users are now able to see ENS text records and socials on Interface. — 08.17.23

—

Integration: Skiff x ENS

Skiff, a private, end-to-end encrypted Web3 work suite, announced support for Skiff Mail with ENS subdomains. — 08.28.23

—

ENS Media Alerts

—

Community Updates

Update on NameSys

@NameSys has officially launched on Mainnet, introducing several upgrades and new features since its Beta version. Notable enhancements include Global Storage for all names in a user’s wallet and the option to use an HTTP Gateway instead of the default IPFS network. The company has also released a Comprehensive Guide, offering step-by-step instructions for using the NameSys Client. While the platform has identified two current limitations—lack of support for emoji domains and NFT Avatars in the eip155:1/erc721:0x format—these issues are slated for prompt resolution in upcoming updates. Users are encouraged to report any bugs via the Github page linked in the client interface. — 08.25.23

—

Vision: iPhone Contacts as ENS Names

r1der.eth, a web developer, UX/UI Designer, and ENS optimist shared their vision for what ENS Names listed on iPhone’s Phone App may look like; we are ready for this future! — 08.16.23

—

Ledger Academy features ENS

Ledger, a hardware wallet provider, recently featured ENS on their Ledger Academy series. This is a must read if you are new to the cryptocurrencies and are looking to understand the advantage of using ENS as compared to a non-legibile hexadecimal address. Read it now. — 08.23.2023

—

General Magic: ENS DAO Merchandise

ENS Merchandise is now available for purchase at ensmerchshop.xyz — developed by General Magic, a full-service Web3 design and development agency, the store features shirts, hoodies, hats, and coffee mugs. Merchandise can be purchased in either fiat or crypto through Coinbase Commerce, shop now. — 08.18.23

—

Working Group Bulletin

Q3/Q4 Lead Stewards + Secretary Appointment

Appointments:

—

ENS DAO Working Group Schedule (Q3/Q4 2023):

—

Meta-Governance

The Meta-Governance working group hosted its weekly meetings on August 22nd, 2023:

—

Request for Feedback

The Meta-Governance stewards encourage the ENS community to participate in improving the Protocol by visiting ens.canny.io; it serves as a dedicated platform to collect user feedback, feature requests, integrations, and bug reports. The tool’s upvoting feature, when widely utilized, can significantly boost community involvement and development. Members of ENS Labs and Working Group stewards have visibility over submissions, and will work to ensure the appropriate parties are notified of submissions. — 08.03.23

—

Small Grants Update

The redesign of the Small Grants initiative is currently in progress, with the next round expected to kick off in the first week of September. The submission period will last approximately 10 days, followed by a 4-5 day window for voting. Instead of using POAP tokens, ERC1155 tokens will be used in the upcoming round.

To combat delegate fatigue and voter apathy, the frequency of the small grants period will be changed to every other month, beginning in September. — 08.22.23

—

Endowment Review

@Karpatkey has shared a review of the Endowment’s progress since its initiation in March 2023, following the execution of EP 3.4: Fund the Endowment (first tranche). As of July 2023, the Endowment has $29.8M in non-custodial assets under management, 88.8% capital utilization, an APY of 3.37%, and monthly farming results of $82,265.

Pending approval, Karpatkey will initiate the Endowment’s second tranche by proposing a new transfer of 16,000 ETH. For a in-depth review, see Karpatkey H1 2023 Review for Endowment. — 08.22.23

—

Validator Diversity

As mentioned in Karpatkey’s review, part of the strategic plan focuses on diversifying the staked ETH and collaborating with new protocols to achieve long-term, low-risk growth. Active monitoring and research are underway to explore alternative investment options, and proposals that align with the company’s risk appetite and overall objectives will be presented for consideration. — 08.22.23

—

Public Goods

The Public Goods working group hosted its weekly meetings on August 15th, 2023 and August 22nd, 2023:

—

Public Goods Highlights: SheFi

SheFi, a recipient of a Large Grant from the Public Goods working group, aims to foster greater inclusivity in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector through its three pillars: education, experimentation, and community. The organization offers a 13-week comprehensive crypto education program and recently held SheFi Summit Paris 2023, an event featuring web3 activities and a successful collaboration with POAP. Their upcoming plans include hosting a mini SheFi summit at Devconnect and utilizing their grant funding to develop governance-related educational content.

Headed by Maggie Love, who places high value on diverse perspectives in governance, SheFi invites potential collaborators to reach out and explore opportunities for synergy. Watch the talks from their recent SheFi Summit on YouTube to get further insights into their initiatives. — 08.22.23

—

Bounty: Expanding Decentralized Identities

Sponsored by the Public Goods Working Group, this bounty aims to foster innovation in the way digital identities are stored, used, and interacted with on the blockchain. The challenge invites developers to submit projects that align with specified technical frameworks like ERC-3668: CCIP READ or ERC-4337 and other Account Abstraction primitives.

While the bounty is particularly interested in ideas that can integrate with the Ethereum Name Service (ENS), it is open to any project that meets the criteria and resonates with the overarching ethos. To be considered, submissions must include a detailed project description with team member details, a link to the publicly visible source code, and a 2-3 minute demo video that offers a tangible illustration of how the implementation advances the field of decentralized identities. Apply here. — 08.22.23

—

Funding Public Goods Discussion

The Working Group continues its discussion on maintaining a robust approach towards the funding of Public Goods projects — with a focus on funding projects based on specific objectives and standards which may align thematically with Ethereum Improvement Proposals. The discussion is open and all are welcome to participate. — 08.22.23

—

Ecosystem

The Ecosystem working group hosted its weekly meetings on August 17th, 2023 and August 24th, 2023:

Note: The ENS Ecosystem Working Group offers rolling grants, and applicants can apply anytime. The evaluation process takes around four weeks, and unsuccessful applicants are welcome to reapply in the future.

—

Update: Gasless DNSSEC

Gasless DNSSEC has been successfully deployed on the Sepolia test network, with contracts verified on Etherscan and current compatibility for .com and .xyz domains. The deployment can be viewed through a specific GitHub PR, and comprehensive documentation covering user flow, frontend guidelines, and other aspects will be available soon. While a minor gateway bug has been discovered, it doesn’t necessitate a contract update. — 08.24.23

—

Proposal: ENS on Swarm

Costanza Gallo & Viktor Toth from Swarm, a decentralised data storage and distribution technology, presented a technical overview of the technology. They are proposing to move the ENS Registry data off-chain with the consideration of a bounty reward. Unlike ENS resolution (managed onchain), Swarm operates off-chain through a peer-to-peer network, facilitating reduced fees and enhanced scalability. — 08.16.23

—

Grant: ETH.LIMO

eth.limo is a pioneering ENS gateway focused on privacy and enhanced user experience for accessing decentralized web (dWeb) applications and content. Designed to ensure strong privacy guarantees, eth.limo refrains from logging IP addresses and employs measures to block Google’s FLoC algorithm, which otherwise tracks users’ browsing activities.

The platform offers various features to enhance performance and reliability, such as support for .art domain name resolution, partnerships for IPFS pinning, and backend optimizations to reduce content caching time. With its latest updates, eth.limo has achieved significant growth, handling up to 1.5 million requests per hour—a staggering 1300% increase from the previous year. The platform’s future plans include multi-region CDN deployment, IPFS clustering, and the development of ENS resolution and DNS resolver applications. — 08.16.23

—

Grant: NameSys

NameSys is revolutionizing the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) landscape by offering a gasless, autonomous platform for storing ENS records off-chain. Utilizing a custom resolver called CCIP2 and integrating IPNS with CCIP-Read, the platform allows for free ENS record updates and dynamic avatars. This addresses the key challenge of high gas fees usually associated with on-chain updates. Security is front and center, as users can create IPNS keypairs securely without involving third-party services, ensuring data integrity. The platform also brings innovative features like dynamic avatars and programmable addresses and is developing additional functionalities such as private payments and dApp store redirects. NameSys is setting a new standard for secure, free, and dynamic ENS record management, making it accessible for enthusiasts at all levels. — 08.28.23

—

🤝🏻 Get Involved

—

Thank you very much for reading! Goodbye. 👋🏻

Loading...
highlight
Collect this post to permanently own it.
ENS DAO Newsletter logo
Subscribe to ENS DAO Newsletter and never miss a post.
#newsletter