Subscription Based ENS Renewal on L2s

As Ethereum Name Service (ENS) continues to mature as the foundational naming layer for Web3, one of the longstanding pain points for users and developers alike has been the management of domain renewals. The current model on Ethereum mainnet requires users to prepay for a fixed number of years, typically in increments of one year or more, with renewals executed manually or via scripts that interact with the ENS registrar smart contracts. While this pay-upfront design has functioned well in the early years of ENS, it introduces inefficiencies, friction, and risks—especially for users who forget to renew, for wallets that are lost, or for DAOs and dApps managing large portfolios of names. In response, the ENS community and developers are increasingly turning toward a new approach: subscription-based ENS renewals executed on Ethereum Layer 2 networks. This model promises to introduce more flexibility, cost-efficiency, and automation, fundamentally changing how on-chain identity is maintained.

At its core, a subscription-based model reimagines name ownership as a continuous service rather than a discrete purchase. Instead of paying upfront for a multi-year lease on a name, users opt into a recurring payment plan—either monthly, quarterly, or annually—where fees are drawn from a wallet, payment stream, or prepaid balance. If funds are available and the subscription remains active, the name remains registered. If payments lapse, a grace period begins, after which the name becomes eligible for expiration and re-registration. This mirrors familiar SaaS models, making ENS more intuitive and aligned with how people expect digital services to function.

Executing such a system on Ethereum mainnet is theoretically possible but economically impractical. Mainnet gas fees make frequent small transactions costly, and the user experience of interacting with high-fee, slow-confirmation renewals undercuts the benefits of a subscription model. Layer 2s like Optimism, Arbitrum, and Base offer a compelling alternative. These chains provide dramatically lower fees, near-instant finality, and an increasing density of ENS-compatible tooling, making them ideal environments for building renewal automation services.

The first technical component of subscription-based ENS renewal on L2s is the off-chain coordination and on-chain verification model. Most ENS names are still rooted on Ethereum mainnet for purposes of ownership and resolver configuration. However, a Layer 2 renewal service can function as a relayer and escrow manager. Users would authorize the L2 service to manage renewal operations on their behalf, depositing funds or enabling payment streaming from an L2-native wallet. At regular intervals, the service aggregates renewal requests and settles them in batch transactions on Ethereum mainnet, paying for gas and the renewal fee in a single operation. This architecture reduces gas costs for users while retaining the canonical ENS name on Ethereum, preserving security and interoperability.

Such a service may use smart contract wallets, such as Safe (formerly Gnosis Safe), with pre-approved modules that manage renewals. Users could configure spending caps, whitelist domains, and set fallback rules—such as email or ENS notifications—if the renewal budget is exhausted. Payment streaming protocols like Superfluid or Sablier could enable per-second funding for ENS renewals, ensuring that as long as a user maintains their stream, the name is automatically paid for. This turns name ownership into a passive background process, similar to auto-renew subscriptions for domains in traditional DNS systems.

Another important benefit of L2-based subscriptions is granularity and bundling. On mainnet, the minimum renewal unit is one year. On L2s, it becomes feasible to offer finer control, such as 30-day renewals, trial periods for new names, or even bundling renewals across multiple names into one plan. For DAO treasuries or power users managing hundreds or thousands of ENS names, this drastically simplifies logistics. They can subscribe to renewal plans that auto-distribute payments, reduce the cognitive burden of manual renewal, and guarantee that critical domains remain uninterrupted—essential for dApp endpoints, wallet resolution, and brand protection.

L2-native ENS wrappers can also support new economic primitives, such as incentives for long-term renewal. Users who subscribe continuously for extended periods might earn renewal discounts, governance tokens, or name-specific perks like higher visibility in ENS-integrated search systems. Service providers might offer dynamic renewal rates based on protocol demand, treasury surplus, or name popularity, using L2 analytics to price subscription tiers more intelligently. These features are difficult to implement on L1 due to cost and latency, but are natural extensions in an L2-first design space.

Critically, subscription services must maintain trustlessness and self-custody. ENS users are highly sensitive to any model that resembles domain hostage scenarios from Web2, where registrars could revoke or lock domains arbitrarily. To address this, the subscription logic should be coded into permissionless smart contracts audited and controlled by the ENS DAO or a credible governance framework. Renewals should be transparently tracked on-chain, with all subscription payments verifiable and attributable. If the service provider fails or exits, users must retain the ability to cancel, migrate, or manually renew their names without losing access or control.

The ENS DAO and community contributors have already begun designing the interfaces and tooling needed to support these flows. L2-first dashboards for ENS, powered by libraries like Viem and wagmi, will allow users to view upcoming renewal deadlines, configure subscriptions, fund balances, and receive alerts across chains. Wallet integrations are likely to evolve to include ENS subscription modules, much like recurring payments are now being tested for ERC-20 tokens. The DAO may also vote to establish an official L2 renewal service or incentivize competing solutions through grants or governance partnerships.

Looking ahead, the shift to subscription-based ENS renewal on L2s could become the foundation for other time-sensitive name features. Temporary subdomain issuance, event-specific name activations, or role-based name access (such as .dao subdomains expiring after contributor offboarding) all benefit from a subscription and time-logic model. These use cases point toward a more dynamic, programmable name system where ownership is not binary but nuanced, reflecting roles, payments, and conditions over time.

In summary, the move toward subscription-based ENS renewal on Layer 2 networks marks a pivotal evolution in on-chain naming. By aligning ENS with Web2-like user experiences while leveraging the programmability and transparency of smart contracts, this model has the potential to drastically improve accessibility, reliability, and scalability of decentralized identity. As more users onboard into Web3 through social profiles, wallet addresses, and dApps, ensuring that their ENS names persist without friction or lapse is both a technical necessity and a user experience imperative. L2s provide the perfect platform for this future—efficient, flexible, and ready to turn ENS into a truly persistent layer of the decentralized internet.

As Ethereum Name Service (ENS) continues to mature as the foundational naming layer for Web3, one of the longstanding pain points for users and developers alike has been the management of domain renewals. The current model on Ethereum mainnet requires users to prepay for a fixed number of years, typically in increments of one year…