The saga around the eth.link domain, a crucial piece of digital real estate for the Ethereum community, has taken a new twist. ENS Labs, the brains behind the Ethereum Name Service, got a settlement pitch from Manifold Finance to close the curtains on their legal tussle that kicked off back in August 2022. This drama, more twisty than your favorite TV show, involves a cast of domain registrars and, of course, Manifold Finance.
Manifold Finance is putting $300,000 on the table, hoping to bury the hatchet with ENS Labs. But there’s a catch: they want the deal to stay under wraps, alongside some “no bad-mouthing” agreements. ENS Labs’ top dog, Nick Johnson, spilled the beans about the offer. It’s all about getting back control of eth.link, a domain that slipped through ENS Labs’ fingers when it was sold off after a renewal mishap.
Eth.link isn’t just any old domain. It’s been a key entry point for folks diving into Ethereum, linking web browsers to ENS names and giving a leg up to some heavyweight DeFi projects. It originally belonged to ENS Labs, thanks to Virgil Griffith, but after GoDaddy dropped the ball on the renewal, the domain got auctioned to Manifold Finance by Dynadot.
A Phoenix court threw ENS Labs a lifeline with a preliminary injunction, meaning they got to hold onto the domain for a bit longer while the legal gears grind. But as Johnson points out, that’s just a temporary fix. The real deal is either hashing it out with Manifold Finance or duking it out in court.
The ENS community is now huddled up in their forum, weighing their options: take the settlement, haggle a bit, keep fighting in court, or throw in the towel and lose eth.link for good. They’re also mulling over a vote to dip into their funds to cover the hefty $750,000 legal bill racked up so far.
Manifold Finance is playing it cool, keeping their lips sealed and not firing back any comments yet.
It’s a high-stakes game of digital chess, with a vital community resource hanging in the balance. The Ethereum crowd is watching closely, ready to see how this legal drama unfolds.
