Ethereum Name Service (ENS) has officially abandoned its plans to launch a dedicated layer-2 network called Namechain, citing major improvements in Ethereum’s scalability and a dramatic reduction in gas fees. Instead, ENS will deploy its upcoming ENSv2 upgrade directly on Ethereum’s mainnet, marking a significant shift in strategy.
The decision reflects how quickly Ethereum’s roadmap has evolved over the past year, making layer-1 deployment more practical than previously expected.
Ethereum Scaling and Lower Gas Fees Change ENS Strategy
In a blog post published Friday, ENS lead developer nick.eth explained that ENS registration gas fees have dropped by approximately 99% over the past year, largely due to recent Ethereum upgrades. One of the most impactful was the Fusaka upgrade, which went live in early December and increased Ethereum’s gas limit to 60 million, doubling capacity from early 2025 levels.
According to nick.eth, Ethereum core developers are now targeting a 200 million gas limit by 2026, representing another threefold increase from today. These gains come even before future zero-knowledge (ZK) scaling improvements are implemented.
When ENS originally announced Namechain in November 2024, the prevailing assumption was that Ethereum layer-1 would not scale sufficiently on its own. At the time, rollups and layer-2 solutions were widely viewed as the only sustainable path forward for applications needing lower fees.
“That context has changed dramatically,” nick.eth said, noting that Ethereum’s faster-than-expected scaling has made it viable to build complex systems directly on L1 without sacrificing affordability.
ENSv2 Will Launch on Ethereum With Improved Performance
With Namechain now shelved, ENS will focus fully on delivering ENSv2, a major protocol upgrade that introduces several architectural and usability improvements. These include a redesigned registry architecture, a more flexible ownership model, improved handling of name expiration, and a system where each name can have its own registry.
While ENSv2 will launch directly on Ethereum, the protocol will remain highly interoperable with layer-2 networks, ensuring compatibility across the broader Ethereum ecosystem.
Nick.eth emphasized that most of ENS’s engineering work has already been dedicated to ENSv2 itself, rather than the now-canceled L2. The shift allows the project to streamline development while taking advantage of Ethereum’s rapidly improving base layer.
