Ethereum Name Service (ENS) founder Nick Johnson has submitted a governance proposal to activate ENSv2 on Ethereum mainnet, bringing the redesigned naming system closer to launch.
The executable draft was submitted on 11 October and would transfer future .eth registrations from the original registrar to ENSv2. New registrations would be paused during the changeover, while existing domain owners would keep their names and would not be required to migrate.
The proposal is still awaiting a formal onchain vote, and no voting date has been confirmed.
Temporary registration freeze planned
The transition would begin with the deployment of new smart contracts and the reservation of eligible existing domain names. ENS Labs says the ENSv2 contracts are already deployed on Ethereum mainnet, although the upgraded registrar is not yet authorised to accept registrations.
If the ENS DAO approves and executes the proposal, the current registrar would stop taking new applications. ENS Labs would then synchronise names registered or renewed since its earlier snapshot, ensuring those records are included before the ENSv2 registrar is opened.
Johnson expects the period between the freeze and activation to last several hours. New .eth names would be unavailable through either system during that time, while other naming functions would continue through the existing protocol. Renewals could face temporary restrictions.
Once the final synchronisation is complete, ENS Labs would enable the new registrar and update the Universal Resolver so wallets and applications can direct look-ups through ENSv2.
Existing owners can keep their domains
Current .eth holders would not need to take immediate action. Their names would continue to resolve using existing records and could be renewed through the normal process.
“If you own a .eth name and do nothing, it keeps working,” Johnson said in the proposal.
ENS Labs has reserved eligible existing names in the upgraded registry for their current owners. Holders would be able to migrate through the official ENS application whenever they choose, with no fixed deadline.
The upgrade would also change the expiry grace period from 90 days under ENSv1 to 28 days in ENSv2. Migrated domains would have their expiry dates extended by 62 days to preserve the same effective timeline. Names that had passed their grace periods before migration would not be reserved and could become available for registration.
New permissions and DAO oversight
ENSv2 replaces the existing flat registry with connected registries, allowing individual domains to maintain their own subdomain registries. Owners could select registry and resolver implementations and assign permissions through specific roles.
That would allow, for example, someone to change a subdomain’s resolver without receiving authority to transfer ownership. The system is intended to provide more precise controls without relying on the existing NameWrapper for every operation.
Developers will need to update integrations through the Universal Resolver, although ENS Labs says most are already prepared. After activation, ENS Labs plans to surrender its remaining privileged roles to the DAO. Registration fees would continue flowing to the DAO-controlled system, whose contracts are configured to recognise the DAO timelock as owner.
The plan follows the ENS DAO foundation restructuring approved in August 2026, which created a five-member governing board and broadened the foundation’s operational responsibilities.
Vote required before activation
The proposal requires a 1% quorum of ENS voting supply, equivalent to one million affirmative votes, as well as majority support. Voting would remain open for seven days, followed by a two-day timelock if approved.
Its 15 smart contract calls would be executed in one transaction, covering registrar permissions, contract ownership, resolver settings and the removal of existing registration controllers.
The initial registrar freeze could be reversed by a further DAO proposal if problems emerged before activation, although completed individual migrations could not be reversed in the same way.
The October governance bulletin continues to list ENSv2 activation as pending. ENS Labs has not set a Mainnet date and plans to publish transaction records and a verification script after the handover, enabling the community to confirm that it no longer holds privileged permissions.
