ENS Approves Overhaul, Transfers $65 Million Endowment and Protocol Revenue Oversight to Foundation

Ethereum Name Service is expanding and restructuring its foundation while revamping how the protocol is operated.

ENS said on Aug. 11 it approved the “Next Era of ENS DAO” proposal through a governance vote and executed it on-chain. The measure passed with about 70% support.

Under the overhaul, the ENS Foundation will be recast as an independent operating organization with a full-time executive director, dedicated staff and a five-member board. It will take charge of off-chain work, including engagement with outside bodies such as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, trademark protection and policy development.

ENS Labs will instead focus on core technology development, including ENSv2, the next-generation protocol.

The foundation will also assume control of the ENS Endowment, a roughly $65 million fund built from .eth domain registration fees, as well as oversight of protocol revenue. ENS DAO will make a one-time transfer of 1 million ENS tokens to the foundation to fund employee compensation. The DAO will continue to manage its existing token holdings, which account for about 54.6% of total ENS supply.

Token holders will be able to appoint or remove foundation directors. The inaugural board will include ENS founder Nick Johnson, Executive Director Alexander Urbelis and three independent directors.

The reorganization follows a governance dispute between ENS Labs and ENS DAO in June. At the time, Johnson used his large voting stake to block the reappointment of the existing Security Council and push for a shift to a foundation-centered operating structure, drawing criticism from parts of the community that the move amounted to a governance attack.