ENS

Web3 Domains Do Not Replace DNS: The ENS Resolution Boundary

A name such as alice.eth looks like an Internet domain, but its resolution path is not the same as example.com. A conventional domain normally enters the Domain Name System, where resolvers follow the DNS hierarchy to obtain records such as A, AAAA, MX, or TXT. An ENS name enters a different naming system whose authoritative state is expressed through Ethereum smart contracts. That distinction is the practical boundary behind many claims about “Web3 domains.” The name can be globally meaningful to software that implements ENS resolution while remaining unknown to a DNS resolver. A browser, wallet, or dApp therefore needs an ENS-aware resolution path before .eth can behave like a useful name.