ENS Dumps L2: Gas Plunges, Names Move to L1

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In the dimly lit office of the Ethereum kingdom, the Namechain dream is suddenly dismissed with the gravity of a clerk who discovers a misprint in the census. Gas prices, that fickle chorus of the city, have fallen by 99 percent, and thus the grand L2 rollup is declared obsolete.

The Ethereum Name Service, that rumor in the corridors about a perfect address, has canceled its Namechain Layer 2 rollup. The gas on the main thoroughfare-the Ethereum mainnet-has fallen so far that a separate balcony seems unnecessary, and the crowd yawns with relief as if a bill finally disappeared from the ledger.

ENS Labs announced this week the decision with the solemnity of a clerk finishing a ledger entry. ENSv2 will reside on Ethereum L1, since the ladder that was to lift it now seems superfluous because the staircase has learned to stand on its own. The Namechain, that grand restless beaver, has ceased its labor entirely.

Why Ethereum’s Breakthrough Changed Everything

Ethereum L1, once a sluggish mule, found a new swagger. The Fusaka upgrade doubled the gas limit to 60 million in 2025, and the scribes of code now whisper of aiming for 200 million by 2026, as if they suddenly discovered a cheat sheet for inevitability.

ENSv2 will be deployed exclusively on Ethereum.

– ens.eth (@ensdomains)

Source: Ensdomains

ENS registration costs collapsed from nearly $5 to under 5 cents in gas fees-a 99% pruning of the expense that would make a miser weep with joy. The blog of ENS domains records the gas limit rising from 30M to 60M during this period, a chart that even a long-faced accountant could smile at, if not outright laugh.

The arithmetic shifted as if a tired horse suddenly discovered a jet stream. Subsidizing every 2025 ENS transaction would cost around $10,000 at current prices; even at the peak Fusaka rates the total would be about $250,000. A dedicated L2, it turns out, would cost more than both figures combined-an extravagance fit for a nobleman’s whim, not a prudent treasury.

The Concorde Moment: Changing Course Mid-Flight

Two years ago, the Namechain dream took wing when L1 gas prices spiked like a fever in a provincial bazaar. Basic transactions cost tens of dollars, and the roadmap promised that L2 would be the miracle of scaling.

The organization poured much gold and ink into the Namechain partnerships and technical development. Many users believed ENSv2 and Namechain were two faces of the same coin. To turn aside now costs a reputational toll that could be counted in sighs and whispered nods.

ENS Labs drew a page from the annals of aviation-like the Concorde, a grand chin of ambition in a storm. Britain and France pressed on, even as the wind changed and fuel grew dear. The oil crisis of 1973 made the Concorde scarce and ceremonially obsolete before it truly opened the skies.

“If we were starting today, would we build our own L2?” the researchers asked themselves. The answer, alas, was a negative folded into a graver sentence.

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What Survives the Strategic Pivot

ENSv2 development continues without interruption. The new registry architecture ships as planned. Users gain a single-step registration and stablecoin purchases from any chain, a convenience that even a fussy landlord would not dispute.

The ENS App and ENS Explorer entered public alpha testing. The streamlined registration flow eliminates manual bridging. Multi-chain support covers over 60 blockchains, including Bitcoin and Solana, like a traveling shopkeeper who knows every street and every alley.

L1 avoids any CCIP-Read gateway. Legacy names do not require additional resolution layers, and hence the architecture is simpler and less prone to the whims of a reluctant system.

The deployment to L1 preserves Ethereum’s basic security. This does not alter trust assumptions, and decentralization remains as robust as a stone church in a storm, compared with any rollup that might have fluttered away like a leaf in the wind.

Gas subsidies to the holders of Eth: when ENSv2 appears, ENS Labs may consider offering a little mercy in the form of subsidies. Even the cost of avoiding L2 infrastructure seems a jest worth considering, given the numbers that dance in the ledgers.

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2026-02-08 07:34