As the crypto world gears up for the Ethereum Merge next month, the number of Ethereum Name Service (ENS) addresses created has surged, surpassing 2 million yesterday, after crossing the 1.8 million mark two weeks ago.
“2m ENS names created!” tweeted the ENS Domains account. “It took 5 years to get to 1m names, then 3.5 months to get to 2m names, and we’re just getting started.”
According to a Dune Analytics report, the total number of ENS names created is 2,006,083 as of this writing, with 526,558 unique participants and 374,819 primary names (also known as “reverse names”) registered.
Primary names allow Ethereum addresses to point to an ENS name, allowing dapps to find and display ENS names when users connect them to their Ethereum account.
“2 million on the books and it’s just the start,” tweeted reseller ENS Domain Broker. “Congrats ENS.”
The Ethereum Name Service manages the issuance and renewal of .eth domain names built on the Ethereum blockchain. The domains can also be sold as NFTs (non-fungible tokens), cryptographically unique tokens that show proof of ownership of a digital or physical object. An ENS name can be linked to an Ethereum wallet and used as the address in place of the usual long string of characters.
But ENS domains are not the only name game in town. Last month, ENS’s rival, Unstoppable Domains, reached a valuation of $1 billion after a $65 million Series A funding round. Unstoppable Domains said it surpassed two million registered domains on its service in February.
After ENS Domains crossed 1.8 million earlier this month, Khori Whittaker, executive director of True Names Limited—the company behind ENS Domains—told Decrypt that the surge in registration was the result of organic growth in the community.
“There is an extremely active and passionate ecosystem of ENS advocates, and they are independently and organically creating sub-communities and spreading the word about what’s possible with ENS domains,” Whittaker said in an email.
Whitaker did not respond to a Decrypt request for comment on this latest milestone.