ENS Labs abandons the creation of the Namechain L2 network in favor of Ethereum - ForkLog: cryptocurrencies, AI, singularity, the future

Froklog · 2026-02-07T11:01:15+00:00

ENS Labs has halted the development of its L2 solution, Namechain, opting to deploy ENSv2 exclusively on Ethereum. This decision follows significant drops in transaction costs, making L2 unnecessary. Ethereum's scalability advancements and reduced gas fees support this shift.

Froklog

2026-02-07 11:01:15

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# ENS Labs abandons creation of L2 network Namechain in favor of Ethereum

The company behind the Ethereum Name Service domain system, ENS Labs, announced the discontinuation of development of its own L2 solution, Namechain.

ENSv2 will be deployed exclusively on Ethereum.https://t.co/lCUmvhcRmH

— ens.eth (@ensdomains) February 6, 2026

In 2024, the project team announced the creation of a second-layer network to deploy the planned ENSv2 upgrade.

At that time, this solution seemed inevitable due to the high gas fees on the Ethereum mainnet, noted ENS lead developer Nick Johnson. Even basic transactions like domain registration and renewal cost tens of dollars, he added.

“Ethereum is scaling faster than almost everyone predicted a couple of years ago. Over the past year, we’ve seen a 99% reduction in ENS registration costs, coinciding with the increase in gas limit from 30 million to 60 million,” Johnson acknowledged.

According to him, abandoning the deployment of the upgrade on a dedicated L2 network will not affect its timeline, and the system will continue to rely on the reliable infrastructure guarantees of layer one.

The developer explained from an economic perspective that registering an ENS domain after the Fusaka hard fork now costs about $0.05 on Ethereum, compared to around $5 a year ago.

Median cost of ENS registration and gas limit per block on Ethereum. Source: ENS Labs.

“For example, if we had reimbursed users for each ENS transaction in 2025, at current gas prices, we would have spent about $10,000. Even at peak values, this amount only rises to $250,000, which is significantly less than the cost of launching a second layer,” he emphasized.

This kind of cost savings opens up the possibility of subsidizing transaction fees for domain holders after the ENSv2 release, Johnson added.

In early February, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated that the initial concept of L2 had lost relevance as the first layer blockchain scaled. He welcomed ENS Labs’ decision to abandon developing its own network:

“That’s the right decision!”.

Recall that several representatives of L2 projects challenged the paths of further ecosystem development proposed by Buterin.

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