Unstoppable Domains vs ENS: What’s the Difference (Updated 2023)

• Unstoppable Domains
• Ethereum Name Service
• Final Thoughts: Unstoppable Domains vs Ethereum Name Service (ENS)

Unstoppable Domain and Ethereum Name Service (ENS) are two domain NFT projects that are designed to revolutionize the domain market, and they aim to accomplish a similar goal from different angles, offering their users varied advantages.

Over the last decade blockchain technology has impacted just about every industry on the planet. Starting with finance, it has since impacted industries such as digital art, gaming and even music and TV. Now, blockchain technology is changing the world of domains and bringing with it several new advantages in the form of domain NFTs. 

In short, a domain NFT is a new domain represented by a Non-Fungible Token (NFT). Also known as decentralized domains, crypto domains, or blockchain domains, domain NFTs provide users with unique advantages not available with Web 2.0 domains. 

Firstly, they’re often a one-time purchase. Instead of relying on a traditional payment plan, a user can buy a domain once and own it for life. As the domain is 100% owned by the user, it also means their domain can’t be censored or repurposed by companies that actually own the domain. 

Despite being a relatively new concept, the idea of NFT domains has already proven popular throughout the cryptocurrency industry.

The following Unstoppable Domains vs. ENS guide explores how each project differs, and which is best for potential users, investors, and the industry at large.

Unstoppable Domains

The marketing battle cry of Unstoppable Domains is to return the power of the internet to the people.

To achieve this goal, it created custom NFT domains that keep data private and provide several additional benefits.

Each domain functions as more than just a web address; an Unstoppable Domains domain can be used as a place to transfer cryptocurrency, a login to the decentralized web, and even provides a universal username, allowing domain holders to have a unitary identity across the internet.

For example, imagine a world where usernames on social media accounts are the same as cryptocurrency addresses and personal site domain name extensions, all stored in the blockchain.

Domains come in the form of .crypto for extensions built on the Ethereum blockchain and .zil for those on the Zilliqa blockchain.

Therefore instead of having a yourbusiness.com domain, the owner could have a yourbusiness.crypto or yourbusiness.zil. 

An advantage of Unstoppable Domains is that everything is completed in a single purchase. Once bought, an owner can keep their domain NFTs for as long as they want without having to pay renewal fees.

Instead of renting a domain, which is what the traditional domain purchasing process is, those buying through Unstoppable Domains will have full ownership in perpetuity.

The domain can also be linked to a user’s cryptocurrency address, which makes it easier to remember a human-friendly address rather than a string of randomized letters and numbers.

This also makes the peer-to-peer transaction process smoother: crypto can be sent directly to and from an NFT domain address, eliminating the need for entering credit card, ACH, or other personal transfer details. 

Ethereum Name Service

Ethereum Name Service (better known as ENS) is operated by a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization, meaning it has no centralized leadership. The DAO’s functionality is facilitated by an ENS token, in which holders can submit proposals and vote on any future developments. 

The ENS token itself is created on the Ethereum blockchain and can be traded on most markets. However, it’s mostly used by ENS community members to dictate how the organization should be changed in the future. For example, the ENS token holders can vote on the ENS Constitution,  vote on the ENS Constitution, a set of rules and guidelines on how the DAO should be governed. Each ENS token will count for one vote, with 67% needed for an article to pass. 

If a member wants to submit a proposal to the community, they will need 100,000 tokens for it to go to a vote. Due to anyone being able to make a submission, votes can be made on a wide range of factors. These include social proposals such as moving a particular director, member or supervisor, allocating portions of the liquid pool, and a range of constitutional amendments. 

ENS operates on the second domain zone, on the .ETH and .LUKE extensions. ENS operates similarly to Unstoppable Domains, but it doesn’t provide a top-level domain (TLD). ENS works like traditional DNS servers, translating website requests into IP addresses and controlling the server a user will reach when they search for a domain. However, instead of using a traditional registrar, ENS uses smart contracts. This helps to remove many of the traditional practices required to purchase a domain such as personal information and billing details. 

ENS domain purchases require users to use an external crypto wallet, such as MEW, MetaMask, and Torus. Users can then buy domains with ETH; Some domain prices start at around $5, however, gas fees (that can fluctuate considerably with ETH) must also be taken into consideration. 

ENS domains expire and must be renewed on a regular basis.

Final Thoughts: Unstoppable Domains vs Ethereum Name Service (ENS)

Both Unstoppable Domains and ENS provide users with innovative ways to purchase a domain without many of the issues related to buying through traditional methods. Each provides users with the option to buy from a decentralized network, whilst keeping their data private. 

One of the key advantages of ENS is its democratic approach to operating. As an ENS holder, users can vote on the future of policies on the DAO, allowing them to influence any future features. To further this, holders can also submit their own proposals once they have 100,000 votes. This allows the community to dictate how the DAO is run, which will allow them to fix any flaws that have been overlooked by the dev team. 

On the other hand, Unstoppable Domains provides users with an easier way to purchase their domain, whilst also working as a cryptocurrency wallet. This overcomes the initial hurdle of buying a domain with crypto, making it significantly more friendly to new users. In addition to this, all domains purchased on Unstoppable Domains are owned for life. This removes the recurring costs of renting a domain and gives the user full power over how they use it. 

Both projects bring with them a range of innovative new features not available in the traditional domain market. With the market itself innovating at a rate we haven’t seen since the .com boom, only time will tell which will become the better option for Web 3.0 users.