ENS Labs has lodged an executable draft proposal with its DAO to activate ENSv2, a redesigned Ethereum naming protocol that would freeze new .eth registrations on the legacy registrar while preserving renewal rights for existing holders.

Founder Nick Johnson filed the draft under ENS governance, which requires at least 1% voter participation — equal to 1 million ENS votes — and majority approval across a seven-day voting window before a minimum two-day timelock begins. A vote date has not been announced.

What does ENSv2 change?

The upgrade swaps in a redesigned registry architecture built for more flexible domain management and permissions, according to the draft proposal. Once live, ENS Labs plans to hand its remaining administrative control over the upgraded contracts to the DAO, a step the team has framed as the final handoff after years of progressive decentralization.

Johnson wrote that existing .eth names would keep resolving through the original contracts during the transition, and that ENS Labs has reserved the equivalent names on the upgraded system for current owners. "Existing domain holders are not required to migrate, and their names would continue functioning normally," the proposal text reads.

The operational consequence is a soft cutover rather than a hard fork: holders who do nothing see no disruption, while ENS Labs loses its unilateral grip on registry parameters such as pricing, resolver defaults and controller roles.

How long will .eth registrations be paused?

New .eth registrations would stop working on both versions for several hours while domain records synchronize, Johnson warned in the draft. After synchronization, fresh registrations would route exclusively through the upgraded system, and the legacy registrar would move into maintenance mode without taking new entrants.

The proposal does not set a date for legacy registrar retirement. Existing holders would retain a renewal path on the original contracts indefinitely under the current language, a continuity clause that matters most for treasuries and brands holding high-value names.

What thresholds must the proposal clear?

ENS runs its decisions through a token-weighted onchain vote on its own governance contract. Executable proposals need the 1% turnout floor — the 1 million ENS threshold — alongside a majority of votes cast during the seven-day window. Passage then triggers a minimum two-day timelock, the standard pause that lets delegates challenge faulty code before execution.

The vote cannot start while the proposal stays in draft. Johnson, who created ENS in 2017, must promote the executable code to active status for delegators to begin signaling. Once active, the seven-day clock starts the moment the proposal lands onchain.

The proposal's central operational bet is straightforward: keep every existing .eth name resolvable through both old and new contracts, surrender admin keys to token holders, and accept only a brief, hours-long freeze on new sales. If the DAO signs off, the upgrade lands no earlier than nine days after the vote opens — and only if every contract address in the executable matches what reviewers expect.