ENS is an acronym for “Ethereum Name Service,” which is a protocol that allows you to do a variety of fun things on the Ethereum network. The fact that they translate machine-readable addresses to human-readable ones is probably the greatest value addition. What can ENS be used for? Okay, so most cryptocurrencies work on the basis of a public key and a private key. While the private key is used to communicate cryptographically, the public key serves as your address. Consider your public key to be similar to your home address or email address. You want to share it with people who are willing to pay you. Perhaps you’re out for coffee with a friend, and they want to repay you. They’d need your public keys to do so. The problem is that the public key isn’t something you can simply utter out loud. It’s quite long and consists of a slew of seemingly random digits and letters. This was an issue. Instead of reading aloud 64 numbers and characters and praying that your friend hears them all right in a noisy café, or emailing him your public key, you can simply tell him your ENS address, which may be as simple as abccrypto.ens. You might inform them that the ENS name server will check your friend’s genuine address and that whoever registered ABC Crypto hs Ens will receive the money they are attempting to send. This is critical in overcoming the psychological barriers that prevent people from adopting cryptocurrency. The interesting part...
