Ethereum Name Service to Pivot to DAO Governance, Airdrops ENS Token to Domain Holders

The Ethereum Name Service (ENS), the entity that controls the decentralized domains built on top of Ethereum, announced it would pivot to a decentralized governance model, opening the door to the formation of a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization). The ENS is now calling for delegates to propose their views to the community in order to be elected. The airdrop of the DAO tokens will open on November 8.

ENS Pivots to Decentralized Governance

The Ethereum Name Service, the organization behind the decentralized domain service on Ethereum, announced recently its intention of pivoting its governance model to a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). The organization is adopting a delegate model that will allow individuals to present their proposals and other users to delegate their tokens to support them.

The ENS explained that while most of the core functions of the organization operate without supervision, there are some issues that still require dedicated human interaction and oversight. Its principal concerns lie in the multi-sig contract that governs the treasury, the future funds, and the registrar contract that manages the pricing mechanism of the domains.

The organization considers that DAO solutions have matured, and this is why it chose this structure to address the current issues in governance.

Constitution and Airdrop

To constitute a DAO, the members and users of the organizations will receive part of the governance tokens according to their use of the platform services. The airdrop of these tokens will happen on November 8, and each user will receive a portion of the 25 million tokens allocated for this purpose. Another 25% of these tokes will be delivered to the original ENS team and collaborators in Discord, while the remaining 50% will be allocated to the DAO treasury.

One of the first acts of the ENS DAO will be to vote on a constitution that proposes a series of guidelines with the purpose of teaching delegates how the ENS should be governed. The constitution proposed is available here, and establishes decentralization and integration as the main objectives of the organization, preventing delegates from applying proposals that would be in conflict with these principles.

This airdrop has generated a lot of buzz in the community, which is now speculating about its value and comparing it to other similar events. This is not the first airdrop of this kind on Ethereum. Dydx, a decentralized exchange, airdropped tokes to its customers based on the usage they had of the platform, with some users claiming up to $50K worth of its native token.