What ENS Integration For Domain Names Means
This means that it will now be possible to use your domain names or hostnames as various identifiers within the Ethereum ecosystem: as more dapps and applications pick up support for this, you’ll be able to reference your wallets, smart contracts and other endpoints using a domain name like example.xyz instead of a native Ethereum address like 0xf7004095d2d81fe3b5937241c106aace6d6e8e4a.
This is very much like the development arc the Internet itself went through decades ago, when a system of identifiers, the DNS, was created to put human readable identifiers to IP addresses. It’s only natural that various systems would emerge to serve the blockchain ecosystem and we’re thrilled to be the absolute first DNS provider and domain registrar to provide native support for ENS integration on .XYZ domains. (Additional TLDs will be coming in the near future).
We require domains using ENS Integration to be registered with us – as this is essential for the setup and automation of DNSSEC.
How to Enable Ethereum Name Service (ENS) Integration on Your Domains
Step #1
Before beginning your ENS Integration, you’ll first want to make sure your account is set to BETA USER. You can do this by going to USER INFO – EDIT – BETA USER:
This not only enables the ENS integration, it also gives you access to our new version of DNSSEC support (Set-and-Forget DNSSEC™) ENS requires functional DNSSEC to be in place on your domain before you try claiming it on the blockchain. The domain must registered through easyDNS for the DNSSEC to work.
The new DNSSEC system is one-click and does everything, including DS record insertion. You can read more about the new DNSSEC HERE, but you don’t have to worry about it too much for ENS integration because our wizard does it automatically anyway.
Step #2
Once you’ve enabled your BETA flag, you’ll need to do the following:
- Go to the INTEGRATIONS tab for your domain name.
- In the BLOCKCHAIN/CRYPTO field, click on ETHEREUM NAME SERVICES
Step #3
Briefly, what the wizard does automatically is run through the entire process for ENS integration, which is:
- enable DNSSEC on the domain
- add a TXT record in your DNS for your Ethereum address
- prove the contents of the TXT record to the DNSSEC oracle on the blockchain
- and finally, claim your domain within ENS
On this screen you simply pick whether you want to do this on ropsten or mainnet (don’t panic if you’re reading this and mainnet option isn’t live yet, it should be by the time the main announcement goes out).
Next decide whether you want the wizard to handle enabling DNSSEC for you (yes, you do), and then you need to enter the Ethereum address you want your domain to resolve to.
Step #4
Your ENS integration will now begin to validate. Please note that our tests on ropsten took 15 minutes or longer. There will be an indicator for every step in the process but you do not need to keep this page open at this point.
Once this process is finished you’ll receive an email from us. If there’s a problem, please use enssupport@easydns.com for now as this is a beta project we want to direct any issues to a dedicated queue.