Remember the time when “digital” was still a trendy word? We have since moved way on. With crypto currencies on the rise, NFTs becoming the next art revolution, and Zuckerberg turning Facebook into a “metaverse company”, staying on top of things has been quite a challenge. Here are just a few facts to set the context:

  • April 2021 marked a historical sale of NFTs at Sotheby’s, which yielded a total of nearly $17 million.
  • At the time of writing, the weekly NFT trade volume has surpassed $300 million for the first time.
  • The estimated number of global crypto users has reportedly passed 100 million at the beginning of the year.

Sotheby’s Virtual gallery in Decentraland

Dedicated to the needs of the art community, the Innovation department of the .ART team has been closely watching the latest developments and is now delighted to announce the possibility of registering your .ART name on Ethereum name service (ENS), and having a neat and memorable crypto currency wallet address as a result.

Imagine if your email address had to be 35 letters long. That would be ridiculous and super confusing, right? Yet 35-character addresses are the norm in the crypto universe.

Not anymore!

You can now send crypto directly to registered domains using .ART wallets. Instead of typing out an incredibly long crypto address, you have the option to simply type in an easy-to-remember domain like annieswallet.art!

“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death, taxes and .ART blockchain wallets” Derrick Austin, NFT LTD, Director & Project Lead with 35+ years’ experience of art, animation & digital production 

What is ENS?

ENS is short for Ethereum Name Service, a blockchain solution for creating a single name with domain name syntax that stores all your blockchain addresses (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana etc) for receipt of multiple currencies, tokens or NFTs. At the time of writing, there are 257+ integrations of ENS, 102K+ owners and 300K names.

Moreover, the highly anticipated Ethereum London hard fork event has exposed users to a more flexible and cheaper fee structure, increasing Ethereum’s potential as the next, and superior, “digital gold”.

What are the benefits of ENS integration with .ART domains?

Security. ENS is built on smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain, meaning it doesn’t suffer from certain insecurities of the DNS system. You can be confident that the names you enter work the way their owner intended.

Concision. .ART domains are naturally easier to remember, giving crypto exchanges human-readable names.

Error-proof. Imagine you get one symbol in your wallet address wrong – not hard when they come as 26-35 alphanumeric characters! With a .ART domain this would never happen, insuring against erroneous transfers.

Marketing. If you are using your crypto wallet to collect or exchange NFTs, what better way there is to advertise that with a .ART domain name? In the age of brand battles won by storytelling, naming is king.

“Whether you create NFTs or are putting together a digital art investment portfolio in the hopes of selling it at a higher price, a digital wallet is a must-have for entering the market. .ART allows you to kill two birds with one stone and benefit from two trusted technologies at the same time – DNS and ENS. Creative audiences that use naming as a marketing tool will definitely appreciate top-notch branding. As an example, the same .ART domain name can be simultaneously used to point to the project’s website and serve as a memorable name for its blockchain address.” Kate Senkevich, .ART Managing Director

How are .ART domains different from other ENS offerings?

  • .ART is ICANN approved and compliant with its policies since day it was launched back in 2017. This guarantees 100% visibility to all .ART domains registered on ENS.
  • .ART domains can also be used as email addresses, while similar offerings from other domain zones bypass ICANN regulations, thus limiting their own functionality and creating a potential security risk.
  • There can be no domain collision where Ethereum blockchain complements DNS namespace, making ita reliable provenance solution, ideal for art objects.

Additionally, there’s potential in the future for single-sign-on functionality, bypassing multiple usernames/passwords for multiple websites, using your single .ART ENS identifier to sign in.

Ready to try?

Grab your .ART domain and connect it to ENS with a comprehensive step-by-step guide