ENS: The Next Big Thing in Crypto

If you have been around in the crypto space for a while you would have noticed that the biggest gains are made if you are able to enter projects build around a new concept early in the game. Whether it is that alt coin that does a 100X, that DeFI project that provides incredible APY or a the first set of NFT projects that rewards the holders with life changing returns.

It goes without saying that when you are early into something you run a much higher risk as well as the uncertainty whether the project will sustain long term or not is also higher.

Another factor which is critical for me when I am analysis whether a new project will be sustainable over long term is if this initiative is providing something new or not. Once a project gets successful it leads to hundreds of copycat projects which just try to piggyback on the success of the first project without providing any real value. Due to this over 99% of these copy cats eventually collapse to zero.

Today I will be talking about ENS, which I think has the potential to be complete game changer for people who are able to get in early and I personally think it has the lowest level of risk involved compared to other type of crypto projects like Altcoins, DeFI projects or NFTs.

Before you proceed further I want to clarify that this post should not be taken as financial advice and as aways you should DYOR before making any decision. 

What Exactly is ENS?

ENS stands for Ethereum Name Service and it has been around for a while. It provides a convenient way to represent your wallet address with something easy to remember like SamBTC.ETH rather than the standard 42 digit standard code in the 0x….. format which is impossible to memorise.

In principle it is quite similar to the DNS system which mapped the IP addresses linked to a site to a .com or .net format.

How much does it Cost to get an ENS?

The cost structure for getting an ENS is quite similar to getting .com or .net domain. You need to pay a fee for ownership of the ID which can be as low as $5 per year and after including gas fee for the registration linked transaction it can be purchased for around $25.

It needs an annual renewal but you have the option of registration for any number of years when you purchase it.

Is ENS a type of NFT?

A lot of people think ENS is a kind of NFT as it can be purchased through a Metamask payment and it can be bought and sold over the secondary market of OpenSea.

That’s where the similarity ends as ENS offers a vast array of functionalities the most useful in my view is that I can link the ENS I have registered to my Metamask wallet address. So next time you urgently want to send over some ETH to me you don’t need to look up my wallet address and can just send it over to SamBTC.ETH, and ENS supports several other crypto wallets to be configured as well like Bitcoin.

Where Can you buy an ENS?

If you plan to buy an ENS, you can head over to https://app.ens.domains/ and search if the ID you are looking for is available or not. If it is available you can easily purchase it though a set of transactions by linking your Metamask to the site.

Why am I Extremely Bullish on ENS over long term?

If someone told me that I could only keep 3 asset classes in my crypto portfolio I would pick Bitcoin, Ethereum and ENS.

Bitcoin and Ethereum are quite obvious but some you might wonder why I am picking ENS in the same category. The reason is that as the popularity and use cases of crypto rises the demand for ENS will also shoot up. As more and more people start making transactions over Ethereum they would prefer a wallet ID that is easier to remember and use rather than looking up the 42 digit 0x format code.

In fact ENS is already so popular that if you go and search your name on ENS there is a high probability that it is already taken up, unless you have a very rare and unique name. Similar is the case of ENS linked to popular brands and companies. In fact all 3, 4 and 5 digit number sequences have already been taken up.

I would strongly recommend you to register your preferred social media ID on ENS as once more and more people start using ENS it will be very difficult to get a desirable ID and you will be left with 2 options that is either adding additional characters to the ID you are looking for or buying the ID you like on OpenSea for a premium decided by the current owner.

If you have any doubts related to ENS then do let me know in the comments section.

Cheers,

SamBTC