GoDaddy, one of the global leaders in domain registration and web hosting, has partnered with Web3 naming standard Ethereum Name Service to eliminate the gap between traditional DNS addresses and ENS addresses for the Web3 space. The collaboration between the two companies will provide domain owners the ability to connect their domain names to their ENS names. These names, ending with .eth, are used to replace the usual complex crypto wallet addresses with more 'human' identifiers, which can be connected to multiple wallets on different blockchains and receive any cryptocurrency, token or NFT.
ENS already allowed most top-level domain names (including .com, .org, .io, etc) to act as web addresses via DNS. It also provided the option of secure off-chain confirmation of ownership to avoid the potentially high gas fees of on-chain proofs.
With this partnership, GoDaddy has added new functionality, so that customers “can quickly integrate their domain name with their ENS-compatible crypto wallet, including Coinbase Wallet, MetaMask, Rainbow, Uniswap Wallet and more.”
In simple terms, this means that users can now connect their domains to an ENS-compatible crypto wallet address via the familiar GoDaddy interface. Connecting an existing GoDaddy domain is free, while creating a new one and registering it for one year on the ENS platform costs around $5 plus gas fees (around $30 at the time of writing).
"By pairing up ENS names and GoDaddy domains, we will streamline the way users interact with web domains, blending the familiarity of the DNS with the potential of blockchain technology," - Nick Johnson, founder of ENS
The partnership could take Ethereum Name Service to the next level, giving it access to approximately 21 million GoDaddy users, who own over 62 million registered domains. As an initial promotion, the companies will allow ENS domain owners to claim free GoDaddy domains for each ENS address in their portfolio.
Last month, Vitalik Buterin publicly described Ethereum Name Service as "super-important", helping the price of the ENS token to rise, peaking at $24.40 before dropping off slightly. The partnership announcement has seen a renewed rising trend, although the token still has some way to go to reach its ATH of $74.3 – we will continue to Observe.