ENS Labs, the development company behind Ethereum Name Service (ENS), announced today that it will launch a specially designed Layer 2 network called Namechain. The aim of Namechain is to expand blockchain identity while maintaining the decentralization and security that users expect from ENS. Katherine Wu, the Chief Operating Officer of ENS Labs, stated in an interview with CoinDesk that Namechain is expected to go live around the end of next year.
In a press release issued on Monday, ENS Labs stated that Namechain will utilize ZK Rollup technology. This technology allows the Layer 2 network to process and execute transactions outside of the Ethereum mainnet while still inheriting the full security of Ethereum, at only a fraction of the cost.
Katherine Wu mentioned that the new network will leverage the existing zero-knowledge (ZK) chain infrastructure that is compatible with Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). She informed CoinDesk through Telegram that the team is in the final stages of selecting which zkEVM to use.
Wu also stated that this improvement, known as ENSv2, will completely restructure the ENS protocol and extend it to Layer 2.