Constitution

Everything you need to know about the ENS Constitution.

The ENS constitution is a set of binding rules that determine what governance actions are legitimate for the DAO to take.

The ENS DAO Constitution sets out the fundamental principles and rules that govern the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) protocol. It was ratified in November 2021 by a social vote of $ENS tokenholders, with 97% approval from over 84,000 participating wallets (15 million votes). View the ratification vote on Snapshot.

Delegates are expected to understand the Constitution and vote on proposals in a way that is consistent with its articles.

Article I

Name ownership shall not be infringed

ENS governance will not enact changes that infringe on users’ rights to retain, extend, transfer, or use names they own, nor unfairly discriminate against any name owners.

Example:

• Permissible: Adjusting registration costs for all names based on transparent criteria.
• Not Permissible: Changing costs for a specific list of names to benefit or penalize certain users.

Article II

Fees are primarily an incentive mechanism

Registration fees are meant to prevent speculative squatting and to fund ENS development. No fees should be enacted solely for revenue.

Example:

• Permissible: Raising fees to deter excessive speculation or to fund ENS operations.
• Not Permissible: Charging a fee for claiming DNS domains purely as an income source.

Article III

Income funds ENS and other public goods

ENS treasury funds must first ensure ENS’s long-term viability and development. Surplus funds may support other web3 public goods, provided recipients uphold ENS principles.

Example:

• Permissible: Funding unrelated public goods if ENS’s needs are met.
• Not Permissible: Funding projects that conflict with ENS goals.

Article IV

ENS integrates with the global namespace

ENS aims to integrate with DNS as much as possible without sacrificing decentralization. Governance must not compromise this goal.

Example:

• Permissible: Granting control of a TLD to its DNS owner.
• Not Permissible: Creating new TLDs not granted by DNS authorities.

Article V

Amendments to this Constitution by majority vote

Amendments require a two-thirds majority and participation from at least 1% of all ENS tokens (currently 1 million $ENS).

Examples are illustrative and not binding parts of the Constitution. For the full text, see the ENS DAO Constitution.