[Temp Check] Registration of on.eth to support interoperable addressing standards

DAO-Wide Temp Check
1

Summary

This Temperature Check asks the ENS DAO to allow and execute the creation and registration of the two-character second-level domain on.eth. This domain will be used as infrastructure to host a Chain Resolver, supporting the cross-chain ecosystem.

Minting on.eth will serve as the namespace for the Chain Registry, based on the chain-resolver codebase. Chains will have individual subdomains, for example optimism.on.eth.

This will allow for the deployment of a custom wildcard resolver system, which will facilitate the integration and functionality of standards like ERC-7930 (Interoperable Addresses) and ERC-7828 (Human-Readable Interoperable Addresses, such as vitalik.eth@base).

This proposal supersedes the [Temp Check] l2.eth to Enable Chain-Specific Addresses initiative.

Context and Motivation

Currently, the Ethereum ecosystem relies on a JSON file hosted on GitHub and websites such as chainlist.org to map chain names to their Chain IDs. This presents certain limitations:

  • It is not a trustless, on-chain source of truth.
  • Smart contracts cannot natively and reliably query this information.

This initiative, whose contracts and specifications are in the chain-resolver repository, seeks to address these limitations by creating an on-chain registry. In the future, this registry could be extended to include more chain information beyond the chainId, becoming an on-chain alternative to services like chainlist.org. For this system to operate reliably and permissionlessly, it requires a stable namespace within ENS. The on.eth domain is proposed for this purpose due to its brevity and suitability for infrastructure use.

Chain Resolver

The Chain Resolver is a smart contract that also serves as an on-chain registry. It maps human-readable chain names (e.g., “optimism”, “base”) to their standardized, machine-readable identifiers (per the ERC-7930 format) and vice versa, providing a decentralized and verifiable source of truth. As a specialized resolver, it enables dApps and other smart contracts to look up chain information using standard ENS queries. To learn more about its implementation, consult the technical documentation:

Governance: Multisig Configuration

To ensure the security and longevity of the domain, on.eth will be managed with a two-tier model:

  1. The ENS DAO will be the ultimate owner of the on.eth name. This is a security mechanism to prevent the loss or centralized control of the domain. If the managing multisig were to become unavailable, the DAO can vote to transfer control to a new one.
  2. Day-to-day administrative tasks, such as registering new chains or updating records, will be delegated to a dedicated multisig wallet. This provides operational efficiency while ENS-DAO maintains control.

The proposed initial composition for this multisig will be community members (more details will be provided soon):

  • Josh Rudolf (Ethereum Foundation)
  • Nick Johnson (ENS)
  • Unruggable
  • Other parties from the broader ecosystem.

Benefits to ENS

Usingon.eth for this purpose provides the following benefits to the ENS protocol and the community:

  1. Enables the implementation of interoperability standards (ERC-7930 and ERC-7828), allowing for their functional integration with ENS.
  2. Replaces the off-chain GitHub registry with a DAO-governed on-chain alternative that can be queried trustlessly by smart contracts and apps.
  3. Reinforces the position of ENS as a naming service for ecosystem infrastructure.

Use cases

Some examples of how on.eth could be used within the ecosystem include:

  • A user will be able to enter an address like vitalik.eth@base into their wallet. The wallet will then query the registry on on.eth to identify the chain (“Base”) and resolve the address on that chain. This simplifies cross-chain interactions and reduces the potential for errors.
  • A smart contract or app will be able to query optimism.on.eth to natively obtain its Chain ID (10). This provides a verifiable, on-chain data source, removing the dependency on off-chain registries (such as GitHub files).

Next Steps

If this proposal is favorably received, the following steps will be taken:

  1. Finalize the multisig configuration, including its operational and deployment parameters.
  2. Register on.eth and confirm that the multisig holds custody of the name.
  3. Submit a subsequent proposal to deploy and configure the wildcard resolver contracts on the on.eth domain.
15 Likes
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I’m fully supportive of this. I think efforts such as this are excellent uses of the limited 2-character registration space.

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