Algorand Name Service (ANS) v1.0 release on Testnet
Version 1.0 of the Algorand Name Service (ANS) is now available for public beta testing on the Algorand test network. We hope you’ll give it a try and share your thoughts.
What’s new?
We received valuable feedback from our awesome testnet participants and we’ve bundled all the changes we could meaningfully wrap up within the past two weeks of development.
Major changes to the name policy include:
- Name expiration: ANS now supports limited-time validity of name registrations instead of perpetual validity. While you can still register a name for as many years as you wish at once, users can now also purchase a name for shorter periods of time (min. 1 year).
- Pricing: The pricing of names has been revised to fit the changes to name validity. Names are priced according to character length as follows:
* 5 or more character names will cost 5 ALGOs/yr
* 4 character names will cost 50 ALGOs/yr, and
* 3 character names will cost 150 ALGOs/yr.
The cost of renewal will be the same as the price per year. - Name transfer: Users of ANS will now be able to transfer ownership of names to other wallets. The price of the transfer is set by the owner. This feature enables the construction of a marketplace in the future where users may also choose to auction names. And, users will now be able to consolidate names under one wallet by selecting zero as the payment of the transfer.
- Reverse lookup: The ANS registry now supports reverse lookup of names. Users should be able to look up valid name(s) currently registered by a wallet address. And the user dashboard on the ANS website will now display the list of names owned by the connected wallet.
New features:
- Avatars: Users will now be able to link their avatars (stored on IPFS) as properties to their .algo name. For ex: bob.algo/avatar will resolve to the IPFS hash of Bob’s avatar image. The ANS website automatically displays the avatar image on the search result for a name.
- User dashboard: The ANS website now also includes a user dashboard application that helps users manage their names all in one place. Users can now connect their wallet once and the connected wallet info is stored in the browser cache to avoid reconnection.
UI Enhancements:
Few enhancements were also made to the user interactions on ANS website based on valuable feedback from testnet participants.
- Link multiple social-media handles at once: The ANS website now supports linking and updating multiple social-media handles at once instead of doing it one at a time.
- Name Registration is now supported on mobile browser using MyAlgo: The ANS website now supports the name registration process on mobile browsers using the MyAlgo wallet.
What’s next?
The ANS v1.0 is meant to be as close as possible to the version that will be launched on Mainnet. No major changes to name policy or design are anticipated at this moment and changes will be limited to bug fixes, security updates, UI enhancements, and optimizations. Further, the ANS development team will be focused on wrapping up libraries, SDK, and API for integrating ANS. The ANS explorer and insights page will also be prototyped on the website and ANS will be launched on mainnet in mid-February 2022.
Testing — Bug Fixes — Iteration
Any and all kind of user feedback is welcome. Please share your thoughts and feedback here. Or hop on to our Discord server to share and connect with the community. The errors, bugs, UI optimizations, and enhancements collected during user feedback will be prioritized and addressed.
Development
The ANS development team will focus on prototyping libraries and APIs for DApps/wallets/services to integrate ANS. Approaches to overcome technical challenges in supporting Algorand Wallet on ANS website will be further explored.
- JavaScript & Python SDK, REST API to integrate ANS
The JavaScript SDK library currently in development will be wrapped up for release before mainnet launch. REST API that connects with ANS registry is also under development and will be prepared for public release before mainnet launch. Python SDK is currently being designed and will be prototyped in the next project iteration. - Algorand Wallet integration
Due to technical challenges involving Algorand Wallet’s support for logic signatures, ANS website is currently unable to support Algorand Wallet in v1.0. Creative approaches to overcome this challenge will be explored and tested. - ANS Explorer and insights
Statistical information related to the name registry’s activity will be visualized on the ANS website. Information such as the no. of registrations and transfers in the last 24 hours will be available.
Documentation and Community Collaboration
The design of ANS name registry will be open for public review and community collaboration. We are wrapping up the initial version of the documentation and it will be available for review before mainnet launch. Smart contract and smart signature source code will also be available for review on GitHub. We welcome and encourage community collaboration in source-code development, security analysis, review, technical documentation, and content creation.
Mainnet Launch
We hope to accomplish all of the above in less than three weeks and launch the prototype on mainnet in February 2022. Stay tuned for more announcements in the upcoming days.
Get Involved
Join our Discord server to connect with the developers and share feedback. Follow ANS on Twitter to stay on top of future updates and announcements. Smart contract code will be open-sourced soon on GitHub and will be open for community collaboration.
