In order to further support the rapid growth of the larger blockchain ecosystem that Chainlink relies on, we’ve recently released the Chainlink Community Grant Program, as a means of providing important financial resources to the many development teams helping build key systems around Chainlink, as well as the many additional developer resources that enable easy access to the network. Our goal with the grant program is to deploy substantial financial resources towards the creation of critical developer tooling, the addition of more high-quality data, and the launching of key services around the Chainlink Network. We’re excited to begin announcing our awards of Chainlink Community Grants and encourage all the talented individual developers and development teams in our community to apply to the grant program here.

We are glad to announce that ENS—a leading provider of decentralized blockchain-based naming services for crypto wallets, websites, and more, has been selected as a recipient of the Chainlink Community Grant Program. ENS is receiving a grant to:

• Create the capability to generate immutable, censorship-resistant, and human-readable domain names for Chainlink oracle contract addresses, increasing the security of how Chainlink network addresses are accessed and displayed.
• Build a Layer 2 Rollup-based solution for verifying DNSSEC proofs for ENS domain names on Ethereum without having to do the computation on-chain.

The Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is a web3 technology that uses the Ethereum blockchain ledger and time-locked smart contracts to allow users to assign one or multiple blockchain addresses to a human-readable name, making them easier for the users to interact with. Instead of typing in a 40 character hexadecimal public address (excluding the 0x), users can simply type in human-readable names, very similar to how we use web addresses today instead of complex IP addresses.

In addition to simplifying the interaction with blockchain addresses used on the Chainlink Network, ENS is building a layer 2 Rollup-based solution to enable the verification of DNSSEC proofs off-chain to allow for highly secure validation of DNS data. DNSSEC proofs are used throughout the Internet today; they leverage public/private key cryptography to prove that DNS data is in fact authentic from the source, removing man-in-the-middle attacks that may redirect users to phishing sites. Thus, ENS will provide high-security guarantees to verifying data from Chainlink oracle contracts, as well as performing these services in a highly scalable manner that mitigates the problem of expensive on-chain gas costs.

ENS is a community resource both for Chainlink and the entire Ethereum ecosystem that deserves to be funded for the addition of new innovative features developed in an open-source manner through the Community Grant Program. Supporting great community resources such as the ENS aligns with the Community Grant Program’s goals of providing tools and services that will grow the Chainlink Network, DeFi ecosystem, and smart contract ecosystems across all blockchain environments.

“I’m thrilled that ENS has been selected as a recipient of the Chainlink Community Grant Program, so we can help improve the user experience of interacting with the Chainlink Network,” stated Nick Johnson, Founder of ENS. “The Chainlink Community Grant will allow us to both further expand ENS for the entire Ethereum ecosystem, as well as enable greater security for how Chainlink contract addresses are found and secured on Ethereum mainnet.”

Through the Chainlink Community Grants program, we look forward to continuing to empower more and more Chainlink ecosystem teams who are building key tools and infrastructure that accelerate the development of hybrid smart contracts and secure oracle node infrastructure. We will continue supporting the community as a key driver of Chainlink’s rapid growth, because only together can we make hybrid connected smart contracts into the dominant form of digital agreement.

About the Chainlink Grant Program

If you want to learn more about the Grant Program, check out our recent blog post that further expands upon its goals and the criteria for submission. If you would like to participate in the Chainlink Grant Program, please apply here. Chainlink Community Grants are provided in cash and/or LINK.

About ENS

The Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is the leading blockchain-based naming protocol, enabling users to have one name for all of their cryptocurrency wallets, a decentralized website, or to name any arbitrary data. It’s integrated in 158 services and growing, including 43 wallets like Coinbase Wallet and Trust Wallet, dozens of dapps like Uniswap and Decentraland, and browsers like Brave and Opera. With the ENS Manager App, you can register a blockchain-native .ETH name or import the DNS name you already own. In this way, ENS brings the benefits of decentralization, security, censorship-resistance, and programmability of the Ethereum blockchain to Internet naming, enabling new features like self-custody, composability in the greater Ethereum smart-contract ecosystem, and more. Learn more at ens.domains.