A new partnership will soon enable ethereum users to attach their addresses to a top-level internet domain name, making it easier to remember the identifiers associated with their assets, wallets and services.
The Ethereum Name Service (ENS), which allows ethereum users to replace long addresses with "human readable names" attached to a .eth domain, has partnered with Minds + Machines Group (MMX), a company that owns and operates "top-level domains" within the internet's Domain Name System (DNS) (others include .com or .uk, for example).
Announced on Friday, the collaboration means ethereum users will be able to register their addresses with MMX's soon to be launched .luxe domain, which stands for "lets u xchange easily," offering a more user-friendly way to access the blockchain's assets and services like dapps and smart contracts.
Likewise, MMX said the .luxe addresses will allow "names to resolve over the internet in the normal way for email or web-based traffic," enabling users to conduct "traditional internet activity" with the same address used for their ethereum assets and services.
"We're very excited to be helping advance integration between existing DNS-based name services and the Ethereum Name Service, improving usability for blockchain applications and users," ENS lead developer Nick Johnson said in a statement.
He added in an email that the "natively 'blockchain enabled'" .luxe domain will offer "more choices of domain and of trust model" for ethereum users, and that the partnership "improves integration between the legacy DNS space and blockchain technologies."
MMX is confident that sufficient demand exists for .luxe, and pointed to ENS' success as evidence.
"We already know from ethereum's test in its .eth zone that there is a real proven demand for word-based identifiers that are blockchain enabled," CEO Toby Hall said in the statement.
Launched in 2017, ENS features "an automated registrar that allows anyone to register domain names ending in '.eth'" via an auction. As previously reported by CoinDesk, identifiers foundation.eth and exchange.eth were claimed for about $27,000 in ETH and $609,000 in ETH respectively in 2017.
MMX has not yet launched .luxe, and plans to hold a "limited registration period" in October for ENS users to claim their equivalent .luxe names. It plans to offer .luxe names to the public starting on October 30.
Domain names image via Shutterstock
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