I just found out some pretty interesting news about ENS. Nick.eth, the lead developer, announced that they will deploy ENSv2 directly on the Ethereum mainnet. The curious part is that this means halting the development of Namechain, their own Layer 2 network.

The reason behind this strategic shift is fascinating. It turns out that Ethereum Layer 1 has scaled much faster than expected. After the Fusaka upgrade in 2025, which raised the Gas limit to 60 million, transaction costs plummeted. Specifically, the Gas cost to register ENS dropped 99% over the past year. Now we're talking about average fees below $0.05, which completely changes the landscape.

What's interesting is that the team is moving forward with their plans for ENSv2 without significant changes. They are working on quite useful features: one-click registration, support for cross-chain stablecoin payments, and a completely redesigned registration interface.

From my perspective, this decision makes sense. Staying on Layer 1 removes those additional trust assumptions that Layer 2 protocols introduce, and leverages the robust infrastructure that Ethereum already provides. Plus, they already have the new ENS app and explorer in public alpha testing.

This is one of those decisions that shows how the ecosystem evolves. When the underlying technology improves enough, sometimes the most elegant solution is simply to use it directly.