ENS token holders have approved the “ENS DAO New Era” proposal, and the related implementation has already been executed on-chain, formally making the ENS Foundation an independently operating entity, according to an official update released on Aug. 11.
The foundation will establish a full-time executive director role, dedicated staff, and a five-member board. It will represent ENS in institutions and standards bodies including the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Its mandate also covers matters related to the “.ens” top-level domain, along with policy outreach, intellectual property protection, hiring, ecosystem grants, and other offline operational work.
Three-way structure across the DAO, foundation, and ENS Labs
ENS said the launch of the foundation as a formal operating body will allow ENS Labs to concentrate more heavily on protocol and product development, including core infrastructure work such as ENSv2.
Under the revised governance structure, ENS DAO, the ENS Foundation, and ENS Labs will operate as a three-part system with clearly separated roles. ENS Labs will continue to handle core ENS protocol development. The DAO will oversee protocol governance and supervise the foundation. The foundation, for its part, will take on the offline institutional functions needed to support protocol operations.
Endowment unchanged, 1 million ENS transferred to the foundation
ENS said the Endowment funded by .eth domain registration revenue will remain unchanged. Transactions involving those assets will be subject to a nine-day timelock, and the ENS Security Council will have the power to cancel actions that fall outside the foundation’s authorized scope.
The organization added that ENS DAO holds tokens equal to 54.6% of total ENS supply, and those tokens remain under the control of the DAO and token holders. The single exception is a one-time transfer of 1 million ENS to the foundation, which will be used to pay employee compensation under a public compensation framework.
ENS also said the ENS Foundation and ENS Labs are separate legal and operating entities. The foundation does not own ENS Labs, and ENS Labs does not have governance authority over the foundation. Token holders retain the ability to appoint or remove foundation directors.
Initial board members named
The ENS Foundation’s first five-member board includes executive director Alexander Urbelis; ENS founder and ENS Labs CEO Nick Johnson; and three independent directors: A.Capital Ventures general partner and ETHGlobal co-founder Kartik Talwar, Prelude co-founder Brett Sun, and Aragon CEO Anthony Leutenegger.
Existing commitments remain in place
ENS said current stewards, grant programs, and other existing commitments will continue. The foundation will gradually take over grant programs, working groups, and related matters, while ENS Labs will keep leading protocol development and the DAO will remain responsible for governance and oversight.