Ethereum domain name service provider ENS has canceled plans to launch a layer-2 as part of its ENSv2 upgrade, opting instead to launch a revamped protocol directly on Ethereum.
In a blog post on Friday, ENS lead developer nick.eth explained that the decision was partly due to a “99% reduction in ENS registration gas costs over the past year” amid a number of important upgrades to the Ethereum network.
“Put simply: Ethereum L1 is scaling, and it’s scaling faster than almost anyone predicted two years ago. The recent Fusaka upgrade raised the gas limit to 60 million, a 2x increase from the beginning of 2025,” nick.eth said, adding:
“Now Ethereum core developers are targeting 200 million gas limit targets in 2026, a 3x increase from today, and that’s before any ZK upgrades land.”
The Fusaka upgrade, one of the most recent Ethereum upgrades that went live in early December, has helped Ethereum drive down gas fees due to its significant scaling capabilities for both the L1 and the ecosystem of L2s.
ENS initially announced its L2 Namechain in November 2024, stating that it would make it easier and cheaper for users to register domain names through rollups.
Nick.eth emphasized that the context has changed dramatically and that it is now viable to build directly on L1 rather than opt for a full-fledged L2 to reduce costs.
“Huge L1 scalability was not part of the Ethereum roadmap, and the message was clear that L2s were the way forward. We needed to meet our users where the ecosystem was heading, and that meant building Namechain,” he said.
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With plans for Namechain now gone, the ENS lead developer noted that the project is still working on significant performance and utility improvements via ENSv2, while the protocol will remain highly interoperable with L2s.
“The vast majority of our engineering effort has gone into ENSv2 itself: the new registry architecture, the improved ownership model, better handling of name expiration, and the flexibility that comes from giving each name its own registry,” he said, adding:
“Deciding to stay on L1 doesn’t mean we’re closing the door on L2s entirely. The flexibility of the ENSv2 architecture makes L2 names more interoperable. Our new registration flow abstracts the complexity crosschain transactions.”
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