A Twitter poll by Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin has revealed that around 50% of the crypto community think the fair price for a 5-letter .eth domain name for 100 years is less than $100.
According to responses from the community, the “under $100” price is the best because it would ensure inclusivity for all, while others argued that the price should be high as the domain ownership would last for 100 years.
under $100 because crypto and ENS should be inclusive for all. $100 in some countries is quite a lot of money. who says wealthy citizens of select regions should be the only ones who have 5 letter ens usernames?
— soy.eth (@soy_eth) September 4, 2022
Rodney Ramsey argued that “since .eth has very little utility outside speculation, the registration should be as cheap as possible. If people want to speculate and trade them, so be it, at whatever price they want.”
Since .eth has very little utility outside of speculation, the registration should be as cheap as possible. If people want to speculate and trade them, so be it, at whatever price they want. But the base utility is almost zero right now.
— Rodney Ramsey (@RodneyRamsey) September 4, 2022
Buterin’s responses to some community members showed that he was trying to prevent “scalpers” from domain parking and provide small players the opportunity to own these domain names.
The status quo will make it unaffordable for smaller players to get _anything_ interesting in 2050 because it will all be taken.
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) September 4, 2022
Meanwhile, some community members have argued that Buterin should let the market decide the value for these 5-digit ENS domain names.
why can’t markets decide this? https://t.co/LViz9SICxA
— 6529 (@punk6529) September 4, 2022
As of press time, over 85,000 people have participated in the poll.
Buterin calls for ENS domain taxation
Vitalik Buterin had recently suggested a 3% yearly fee on ENS domain names for the highest bidder.
According to Buterin, ENS domain name holders should pay 3% of the highest bid on their address yearly to maintain ownership. An investor with $500,000 as the highest bid on their domain should pay a $15,000 taxation annually.
According to him, this would demotivate people from hoarding domains they aren’t using.
ENS domains on the rise
ENS domain names have enjoyed massive adoption and growth in recent times.
August 2022 stats for ENS
– 301K new .eth registrations (total 2.17m names)
– $4.7m in protocol revenue (all goes to the @ENS_DAO)
– 2,744 ETH in revenue (3rd highest month)
– 34K new eth accounts w/ at least 1 ENS name (total 540k)
– >99% of OpenSea domain vol pic.twitter.com/utU8i4cBMT— ens.eth (@ensdomains) September 1, 2022
According to available data, the ENS domain names generated $4.7 million in protocol revenue while adding over 300,000 new .eth registrations in August.
It was also revealed that ENS domains added 34,000 new accounts with at least one ENS name and generated its third highest revenue in August with 2,744 ETH ($4.3 million).
Community members are crediting the growth of the ENS domain names to the incoming Ethereum merge.
The use of .eth names has become trendy within the crypto community as several influential Twitter accounts now use them as their profile names.
