Ethereum Name Service (ENS) Sues GoDaddy For eth.link Sale

True Names Ltd (the parent company Ethereum Name Service (ENS)) is suing GoDaddy (among others) for the sale of the eth.link domain. The lawsuit, filed in Arizona, USA, last week, aims to halt and stop the sale of eth.link to DeFi company Manifold Finance who purchased the name on September 4th for $851,919. Now, ENS and its previous owner, Virgil Griffith, are suing GoDaddy, the new owners Manifold Finance, and the auction sellers Dynadot.

ENS set to sue GoDaddy

The announcement of the lawsuit confirms that ENS and Virgil Griffith are serious about getting the eth.link domain back. However, it is much more complicated than it seems. GoDaddy can argue that the domain name expired, and when this happened, it should automatically go back on sale via the registration pool on September 5th.

Significantly, on August 25th, GoDaddy released a statement confirming that the eth.link domain was expiring on September 5th. Notably, there are claims that GoDaddy transferred the eth.link to another registry, Dynadot LLC, which put eth.link up for auction.

What happens next in the GoDaddy ENS domain saga?

On September 4th, Manifold Finance (@foldfinance) tweeted, “http://eth.link was just sniped by us. Services to be restored once ownership transfer complete.”

The announcement shocked Nick.eth, the lead developer at ENS. Responding to the tweet, Nick.eth tweeted: “Where? It hasn’t actually expired yet; did you bid on a drop-catching site? Want to send me a DM?”

It is unclear what will happen next in the continuing weeks between ENS and GoDaddy following the lawsuit’s announcement. As it stands, Manifold Finance is the new owner of the eth.link domain. It will be down to the Arizona legal system to work the legality of the sale.

Why is the eth.link name so important?

The eth.link domain is integral to the eth.domain names ecosystem. Programmer Virgil Griffith created it for use as a ‘revolving service’ for .eth domain names. Basically, it acts as a link (hence the name), ENS domain names to the web2 domain name system (DNS). 

Today, when you use eth.link, you will find a message about the current service status and links to Manifold Finance’s website. 

In the coming weeks, we will see how and if the situation between ENS and GoDaddy changes.