ENS DAO Asked to Approve Protocol Upgrade Pausing New .ETH Registrations

ENS DAO approval — The Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is seeking formal approval from its decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) to activate a major protocol upgrade, known as ENSv2, which would require freezing new .eth domain registrations for several hours.

ENS founder Nick Johnson has submitted a draft proposal to activate the next version of the naming protocol on Ethereum mainnet. If approved by an onchain vote, the upgrade would implement a redesigned registry architecture with more flexible domain management tools.

The transition would involve temporarily halting new .eth registrations on the original registrar, though existing domain holders could continue to renew their names. Existing holders are not required to migrate, and their names will function normally. ENS Labs has reserved existing .eth names for current owners on the upgraded system.

The proposal requires at least 1% voter participation, equating to 1 million ENS votes, and majority approval during a seven-day voting period. If passed, a minimum two-day timelock will precede the upgrade’s execution. A specific voting date has not yet been announced.