For those who are also active on Twitter, you might notice some users having display names that end with .eth. Those are actually registered names through the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) and in this post I will explain what the names do and how you can get yours.
DNS vs ENS
For those who are slightly more techie, you probably know about domain name service or DNS. Our computers connects to each other through IP addresses. DNS helps us by converting IP addresses that look like this (104.27.177.155) to easier names like steempeak.com. The Ethereum Name Service or ENS does basically the same thing.
The key difference between ENS and DNS is that, ENS is decentralized and DNS is centralized. Do you know that every .com domain registered, fees are given to a central registrar? The registrar for .com domains is VeriSign and every registered domain will need to pay an annual fee for it. Since these domain names are registered and stored with a centralized party, it is in fact a single point of failure with great risk.
ENS offers a different approach by storing these information on the decentralized Ethereum blockchain. Through smart contracts, the registration process is fully automated and pretty much seamless. As a result, we have an infrastructure that mitigates the risk of single point of failure.
Currently, the main use case of ENS is to resolve a Ethereum address to a .eth name. For example, culgin.eth gets resolves to 0xcfa69328a74c0eac388b889c21eb3ddd9d41a025 (my Ethereum address). Below is a screenshot of how ENS can be looked up on EtherScan.
However, ENS can do much more. It can technically be used to resolve to IP addresses as well but more importantly, it can also be resolved to addresses of other coins! The only caveat is that the wallet you are using must be able to support it. Thankfully, quite a number of wallets are supporting ENS already. You can check the list below.
Source
As the usage of ENS increases, more wallets and dApps are expected to follow suit. To learn how to register your own ENS name, you can follow this excellent guide by Chris Bell.
Bringing ENS to Steemians
Recently 
The response was good (everyone loves freebies right?) and there were over 120 comments. As I scroll through the comments, I can't help but noticed that none of the Steemians, except for me, is using an ENS name. All of them are listing their Ethereum addresses as a long string of gibberish text.
To me, I think that ENS names are a better representation of an Ethereum address which makes it easy to remember. In addition, prominent names in the crypto-space are also starting to use ENS names, including Vitalik Buterin.
Given these benefits, I thought everyone should get an ENS name. However, I acknowledge that there are some hurdles that Steemians will need to overcome.
Hurdles for Steemians
There are a few obstacles that Steemians will need to overcome in order to have their own ENS names. First, they need to own some ETH. Recall that the ENS uses Ethereum Smart Contracts to fully automate the process of name registration. Hence, it is mandatory to buy your ENS name with ETH. While it is easy to create an Ethereum address to start receiving ETH payments, not all Steemians own ETH and many probably do not want to take the risk to buy ETH just to create an ENS name.
Next, creating a name requires certain technical know-hows. While Chris Bell's guide is comprehensive and easy to follow. There are certain pre-requisites that the guide assumes the users already know. For instance, you need the Metamask plugin and know how to use it.
Finally, the cost of it. The ENS charges a flat fee of US$5 for 1 year lease of an ENS name. For users who just want to try it out, he/she may not want to pay the $5 fee. In addition, the fee is collected in ETH. Since there is a good chance that ETH can appreciate in the future, some users would rather keep their ETH than to spend it on an ENS which may or may not yield much benefits.
Recognizing all these concerns, I have decided to a service here on Steem so that you can get your own ENS names in a risk-free way.
The Steem.ENS Service
Like traditional DNS, ENS also allows for sub-domains to be created. As such I have purchased a number of Steem related ENS names and decided to help you create your own ENS names. By sub-domains, it means that the name will come in 3 chunks instead of 2. For example, culgin.steemleo.eth can also resolves to my ETH address as seen below.
I think having a Steem-related sub-domain allows you to kind of promote Steem as well whenever you use it, especially if you decide to update your Twitter display name to a .eth name. Not only you are promoting Steem, you will also be able to attract some followers who are fans of Ethereum :)
While I said that this service will allow you to get your ENS in a risk-free way, it does not mean entirely cost-free. As each sub-name registration will cost me a bit of ETH (gas fees to interact with the smart contracts), at this point, I am thinking of having Steemians to delegate SP to lease their ENS names. This will allow me to earn the gas fees through curation rewards and also support other Steem projects through upvotes.
At a later date, I will be announcing the full list of supported ENS names and the service model. For now, I will like to get an interest check. For those who are keen to engage my service, please leave a comment and let me know. It will be even better if you can join my Discord server and follow my service account 
Thanks!
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This article is created on the Steem blockchain. Check this series of posts to learn more about writing on an immutable and censorship-resistant content platform:
- What is Steem? - My Interpretation
- Steem Thoughts - Traditional Apps vs Steem Apps
- Steem Thoughts - A Fat or Thin Protocol?
- Steem Thoughts - There is Inequitable Value Between Users and Apps
- Make my votes count! Use Dustsweeper!
- What caused STEEM to get dumped? Why I think the worst might be over
- Steem 2020 is about having a "SMART U"