ENS enable millions of traditional domain owners to crypto-enable their domains for free. Making it possible to use, for example, your .com .net or .org DNS name with ENS.
For example: Coinbase *.cb.id usernames are all issued under their cb.id DNS name that was imported into ENS! Over 4 million usernames have already been claimed.
There are two ways to supercharge your DNS name with ENS functionality: Onchain and Offchain. Both methods support DNS names and and integrate with DNSSEC (security layer for DNS).
Read more about Offchain Gasless DNSSEC Names in ENS.
Onchain DNS Names in ENS
The onchain method requires that the user set a text record and prove ownership of that name by submitting proofs of those text records to Ethereum. Proving ownership and claiming names will cost the user gas for network fees.
Instructions
You can only claim existing DNS domain names that you own
There are a few pre-requisites to importing a DNS name into ENS
The DNS name must have DNSSEC enabled with RSA/SHA-256 or ECDSA keys
An _ens TXT record must be created on the DNS name containing the wallet address to prove ownership of it.
Go to the ENS Manager App, connect your wallet, search for your DNS domain name and click on it to continue.
1. Enable DNSSEC
Before we can integrate an existing DNS domain name with ENS we'll need to enable DNSSEC for it to establish a chain of trust between the domain name and ENS.
Not all registrars or hosting providers support DNSSEC, and some only support it as an additional paid service. Once you've enabled DNSSEC press Check to continue.
Supported DNSSEC key types
In order for your registrars or hosting providers DNSSEC to work with ENS it must use either RSA/SHA-256 or ECDSA keys.
If they don’t, you’ll need to migrate to a DNS provider that does.
Hosting providers with DNSSEC support
Hosting provider | Key support | Links |
easyDNS | RSA/SHA-256 & ECDSA | |
Google Cloud DNS | RSA/SHA-256 & ECDSA | |
Namecheap | RSA/SHA-256 & ECDSA | |
Hostinger | RSA/SHA-256 & ECDSA |
|
Hostgator | RSA/SHA-256 & ECDSA |
|
Bluehost | RSA/SHA-256 & ECDSA |
|
Wordpress does not offer DNSSEC support
If you're using them to host your DNS you will need to migrate to another service for your DNS hosting. (This does not mean you will have to stop using Wordpress)
2. Add the TXT-record
In this step you'll need to add a TXT-record to your domain name to provide ownership of it, using your registrar or hosting provider's management interface.
The DNS Registrar on ENS looks for a TXT record to verify ownership of the domain. This record has the following attributes:
Type | TXT-record | The type of the record you need to create |
Name | _ens | The name of the record |
Contents | a=wallet address | The content string of the record, a=0x123... |
TTL | 3000 | The Time To Live of the record |
To prove ownership of your DNS name, create a TXT record in your DNS zone, with text data of the form a=walletaddress... where walletaddress is the Ethereum wallet you want to give control of the ENS record to.
3. Claim the DNS name
Now you should be able to go back to the ENS Manager App and finish linking the DNS name with ENS by pressing Register.
Troubleshooting
I’ve updated the DNS records, but it’s not proceeding to the next steps.
It can take time for record changes in DNS to propagate throughout the Internet. If you are sure the records are set properly, try waiting for some amount of time and refreshing the DNS import page.
I've set up DNSSEC but the ENS Manager App doesn't detect it
Use a DNSSEC Analyzer tool to look for errors.