The ENS DAO has established itself as the key governance entity for the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) and has demonstrated capability and responsibility in ownership of several aspects of the protocol. We now propose the further decentralization of the ENS governance structure by transferring ownership of the ENS root key from the current multisig system (multisig.ens.eth) to the ENS DAO (wallet.ensdao.eth).
The ENS root node is currently owned by a multisig contract. The root key can control the allocation and replacement of all TLDs except for .eth. Keyholders are well-respected individuals in the Ethereum community and, with the exception of Nick Johnson, founder of ENS, are unaffiliated with ENS. While the .eth registrar contract control has been locked and cannot be affected by the root keyholders, they still hold significant powers over the structure and functioning of the ENS Protocol.
The ENS DAO holds ownership of the .eth registrar and has control over functionalities like the NameWrapper. The DAO does not have control over the core ENS root name, which retains the capability to create new TLDs, adjust controls for existing ones, and upgrade the contracts responsible for reverse resolution.
With this proposal, we aim to further decentralize the control and governance of the ENS Protocol, placing more trust and power in the hands of the ENS community via the DAO. Community discussion will ensue on the Governance Forum. The ballot will begin on Snapshot and, should it be passed, the current ENS root keyholders will initiate a transfer of the ENS root key to the ENS DAO where it will be managed according to the precepts outlined herein.