ENS DAO Passes Proposal to Officially Establish Foundation, Strengthening Decentralized Domain Ecosystem Governance

Odaily News ENS DAO has voted to pass the "Next Era of ENS DAO" proposal and completed on-chain execution, officially establishing the ENS Foundation to usher the ENS ecosystem into a new phase of governance.

According to the proposal, the ENS Foundation will become a fully operational organization, equipped with a full-time executive director, a professional team, and a board of directors consisting of 5 members. It will be responsible for ENS's institutional work in legal, policy, standards-setting, and brand protection. ENS stated that over the past nearly decade, it has developed into critical infrastructure within the Ethereum ecosystem, with millions of registered domain names and integration across numerous wallets, applications, and Layer 2 networks. However, the DAO itself lacks a legal entity status, which prevents it from effectively participating in internet naming system governance, signing institutional cooperation agreements, hiring full-time employees, safeguarding trademark rights, or engaging in regulatory discussions. The establishment of the ENS Foundation aims to fill this gap. Going forward, the Foundation will be responsible for:

1. Representing ENS in internet standards organizations such as ICANN, IETF, and W3C, to promote the recognition and management of the ".ens" top-level domain (TLD);

2. Participating in policy discussions as a legal entity, communicating with regulators and government agencies;

3. Holding and protecting ENS trademarks and intellectual property, and combating phishing and impersonation activities;

4. Hiring full-time employees to manage ecosystem operations, grant programs, and treasury management;

5. Serving as the formal cooperation entity between traditional institutions such as registrars and standards organizations and the ENS ecosystem.