The Complete Guide To ENS Subdomains (2023 Guide)

2022 saw the explosion of Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domains, with almost 600k owners, 3m names, and transaction volumes exceeding 76k ETH at the time of writing. However, not many are aware of the existence of ENS subdomains. In this article, we will explore the many opportunities that come along with this third level domain.

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Table of Contents

What Are ENS Subdomains?

Most ENS domains we see today consist of a top-level domain and a second-level domain, such as vitalik.eth and paradigm.eth. In such domains, ‘eth’ represents the top-level domain while ‘vitalik’ and ‘paradigm’ represent the second-level domains. With ENS subdomains, there can now be a third-level domain that comes before the top-level and second-level domains.

Basically, any ENS domain owner can create an unlimited number of subdomains as long as the ENS domain remains active. They can then send these subdomains to an employee, a community member, or anyone they want. Owners will only need to pay the gas fees incurred during the subdomain registration.

Why Use ENS Subdomains?

Here are some of the opportunities that come along with ENS subdomains: 

1) Brand identity

If you run a company, you may want to issue your employees specific subdomains to represent the brand. For instance, web3 companies like Maker can issue employees with maker.eth subdomains. On some level, it can be similar to employees using company email addresses.

2) Generate income

Selling ENS subdomains can also become a source of revenue for your company. This can be useful especially for common industry-related terms such as ‘football’ or ‘movies’. For instance, any football team or company can claim a football.eth subdomain for themselves. In the past, we have seen companies like Firefly use this method as a means of crowdfunding. 

3) Reward your community 

Since issuing subdomains carries an extremely low price tag, it can be a great way to reward your community. Subdomains can be issued for participating in an event, joining a DAO, owning an NFT, etc. For instance, all the Dapconn 2022 participants can receive a dapconn.eth subdomain upon registering for the event. Lately, members of the Moonrunners NFT community have also been flexing their Moonrunners ENS subdomain.

4) Organisation

Generally, ENS subdomains allow owners to organise their accounts while maintaining a certain identity. For instance, companies and even individuals can have subdomains for each department, or keep records of different types of crypto/NFT transactions in an orderly fashion.

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How To Create An ENS Subdomain?

To create an ENS subdomain, simply click on the Subdomains button in the ENS app. This is where you can add new subdomains according to your individual preference. Upon creating a subdomain, you can then set the owner to the desired address, which can be the same owner of the parent domain or any other address. On the other hand, you can also allow others to claim subdomains by opening up subdomain registration on your domain. However, do note that this effectively hands over control of any future subdomain.

What Can You Do With An ENS Subdomain?

Once you own an ENS subdomain, the uses are pretty much similar to ENS domains. For instance, it could be a wallet address or mapped to your dApp. For use cases, check our our article on Web3 Domains.

Summary

Although ENS subdomains are not new, many are yet to leverage the many benefits it can bring. As web3 domains move past the speculation phase, ENS subdomains should see a higher rate of adoption. In addition, ENS is also working on a solution to decrease the gas fees by integrating layer-2 solutions such as Polygon and Immutable-X, further lowering the barriers to entry.