Ethereum is the largest and most used smart contracts blockchain in the world, by a wide margin, comprehensively eclipsing competition. But, it has a problem. Its wallet addresses are complex and human unreadable. This makes it difficult for users to work with them. For instance, if you sending funds to an Ethereum wallet, the long random address needs to be typed incorrectly and checked multiple times to establish that it’s the right one. It’s easier to make mistakes there. However, there is a solution.
Nature Of Ethereum Wallet Addresses And Generation Procedure
Let’ start with the basics here. The addresses for Ethereum wallets are unique, 42 hex string characters and are not case-sensitive. They represent an account on the Ethereum blockchain. Their derivation takes place using the public key and private key of an account and through cryptographic hashes. An Ethereum address starts with 0x.
Ethereum addresses are acquired by applying the Keccak-256 hash function to the public key, which is derived by applying ECDSA (Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm) to the randomly generated private key. This results in a string that is 64 characters. Then, the last 40 characters of this public key (Keccak-256) are taken.
The first 24 characters are dropped. These 40 characters represent the address to an Ethereum account. When prefixed with 0x it becomes 42 characters long, which is the commonly known Ethereum address known to the public.
Ethereum Name Service
Ethereum Name Service or ENS fixes that problem by using smart contracts, linking the complex human unreadable Ethereum addresses to a simple .eth (amongst other variants) domain. For instance, you can bind the address 0xb4b3351918a9bedc7d386c6a685c42e69920b34d to something.eth. Now, it’s easy to interact and work with.
You don’t have to copy/paste long addresses and hope that everything goes right. Just purchase a simple domain with low fees to start receiving cryptocurrency, assets, and NFTs. The ENS domains themselves are ERC-721 compliant NFTs, which can be traded too.
ENS domains already are integrated with a large part of the crypto-ecosystem and growing day by day. Currently, it has compatibility with Coinbase, Rainbow, Trust Wallet, MyCrypto, MetaMask, Huobi, etc. The DApps supporting the domains are Uniswap, Etherscan, Tornado Cash, The Graph, Aavegotchi.
How Can You Get One Using Trust Wallet?
2. Then open the DApp browser to access the Ethereum Name Service. It will automatically connect since we are using the Trust Wallet. Double-check the Ethereum address, at this time. Alternatively, you can establish a connection to your wallet using other ways.
3. Search for your preferred ENS domain and if it’s available, the system will show the results. If not, it will be shown as grey depicting that the domain has been already taken.
4. Once you select an available domain, you have to choose the lifespan or your registration period for that domain. These can be renewed multiple times without any limits. So, you can technically keep a .eth ENS domain forever.
5. The last step is registration and payment of the service fees. Congratulations on getting an .eth domain!
