ENS DAO Approves Foundation Restructuring, Creates Five-Member Board and Full-Time Organization

ENS token holders approved a governance proposal to turn the ENS Foundation into a full-time organization, giving it a formal operating structure with a dedicated executive director, staff and a five-member board.

ENS said on its official website on August 11 that the "Next Era of ENS DAO" proposal passed a token-holder vote and that the related on-chain execution process had been completed.

The new ENS Foundation will formally represent ENS before organizations including the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the Internet Engineering Task Force and the World Wide Web Consortium. It will also handle discussions with regulators and policymakers, manage ENS trademarks and intellectual property, and oversee hiring and grant operations.

ENS said the DAO structure alone had limits in carrying out off-chain work such as signing contracts, hiring employees, protecting trademarks and participating in regulatory discussions. Going forward, ENS Labs will focus on protocol and product development, while the foundation will take charge of external policy and operational matters.

Control over the protocol and key assets will remain with ENS token holders. The DAO will continue to hold 54.6% of the total ENS supply, while 1 million ENS will be transferred to the foundation on a one-time basis for employee compensation.

The foundation's asset management will also be subject to safeguards. Transactions involving funds generated from .eth name registration fees will face a nine-day waiting period, and the ENS Security Council will be able to cancel transactions that fall outside the foundation's authority.

The inaugural board will consist of Executive Director Alexander Urbelis, ENS founder Nick Johnson, Kartik Talwar, Brett Sun and Anthony Leutenegger.