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Through an 18-month-long legal fight, Ethereum Name Service (ENS) has eventually reached a settlement with Manifold Finance in disputing the ownership of the eth. link domain, and finally agree on a $300,000 settlement. The resolution that got over 88% votes from ENS DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) members in a recent vote brought to an end a lengthened dispute that shook the crypto community.
Majority votes in favor of offering refunds in eth.link litigation
Under the settlement conditions, ENS Labs itself retains ownership of the eth. link domain name, dismissing the lawsuit against Manifold Finance. Among all the proposals, 84% of voters favoured offering a refund of $750,000 to ENS Labs to cover their legal expenses in the lengthy proceedings.
GoDaddy, the previous registrar, let the eth.link domain expire in September 2022. The dispute started after Manifold Finance bought the domain via the Dynadot auction.
ENS Labs had brought a case against Manifold Finance and domain registrar companies GoDaddy and Dynadot in an Arizona District Court whereby a court order was issued to block the domain transfer outside their ownership.
Nick Johnson, to whom we owe the idea of ENS, announced that Manifold came with a settlement proposal demanding ENS Labs to pay $300,000, as well as clauses of confidentiality and abstaining from defamation. The approval of the settlement agreement by the ENS DAO was a critical milestone in ending the series of disputes.
ENS works like an existing DNS but is based on the blockchain, allowing browsers to map domain names to IP addresses. The eth.link domain is a key element in the creation of the .eth ENS domain active in taking the place for bridging of blockchain-based naming systems and traditional web infrastructure.
The settlement between ENS and Manifold Finance not only points to an end to protracted litigation but also emphasizes the necessity of exact ownership rights on the distributed system.