Receiving payments to human-readable addresses is part of the attraction and core value propositions of using ENS names as a universal web3 identity. Today, those payments are made to static addresses written into the text records associated with ENS names. Changes to those addresses are expensive and require an on-chain transaction and all current and past text records are in the immutable, historical record of the blockchain forever.
I would like to start a discussion with the community and get a temperature check on the idea of exploring alternatives to static payment addresses, such as allowing users to set an optional outside server (and creating the voluntary standards to support it) that would allow wallets that support the standard to resolve the server location from the ENS name and request payment addresses using existing HD wallet technology in order to provide greater payment privacy while using an ENS identity. Static payment addresses would remain for users not interested in the additional privacy features and could also be used as a fall-back in the event that no response was received from the payment server.
Note, I am not proposing that we discuss the technology behind the payment servers themselves, but assuming that such a tool was possible and that ENS provided the capability to resolve the connection details to them, I think it would really spur some innovation in that area. I also think that greater payment privacy is part of the long-term success of users and businesses adopting ENS names to be used as universal Web3 identities.
EDIT: This isn’t a claim that this would provide absolute protection of user privacy, it would just make it mostly infeasible for a casual observer to view a user’s payment history, but a malicious actor wanting to snoop could still do so.