The BNS-V2 is a decentralized naming system built on the Stacks blockchain. It allows users to register, manage, and transfer names within different namespaces. It offers features for decentralized name management, marketplace integration, and supports both open and managed namespaces. This system can be used to create human-readable identifiers for Stacks and Bitcoin addresses. The SDK documentation is here https://www.npmjs.com/package/bns-v2-sdk.
- Namespace Management: Create and manage namespaces
- Name Registration: Register names within namespaces
- Name Renewals: Renew name ownership to maintain control
- Zonefile Updates: Update information associated with names
- Name Transfers: Transfer ownership of names
- NFT Integration: Each name is represented as a non-fungible token (NFT)
- Marketplace Functions: List and trade names on decentralized marketplaces
- Managed Namespaces: Support for namespaces with special rules and management
Namespaces are the top-level domains in BNS (e.g., .btc, .id). They have the following lifecycle:
- Preorder: A salted hash of the namespace is submitted with a burn payment
- Reveal: The actual namespace is revealed, along with pricing information and all of the namespace properties
- Launch: The namespace becomes active, allowing name registrations
Names are the individual identifiers within a namespace (e.g., alice.btc). They have the following properties:
- Unique within their namespace
- Represented as NFTs
- Can be transferred and renewed
- Associated with a zonefile, which stores additional information related to the name.
The registration process for a name in BNS-V2 typically involves two steps:
- Preorder
- Register
During the preorder phase, users submit a salted hash of the fully qualified name (name + namespace) along with the required STX payment. This step prevents front-running by keeping the desired name secret. After 1 bitcoin block, users can reveal the actual name and complete the registration process.
For those seeking a faster registration option, BNS-V2 offers a “fast” registration function which only involves registering the name. Keep in mind this method is susceptible to front-running.
Name prices are calculated based on:
- Length of the name
- Presence of vowels
- Presence of non-alphabetic characters
- Namespace-specific pricing functions
- For managed namespaces the pricing will be handled directly by the namespace manager contract
Each name is minted as an NFT, allowing:
- Easy transfers of ownership
- Integration with NFT marketplaces and other applications
BNS-V2 supports two types of namespaces: Unmanaged and Managed.
Unmanaged namespaces are open for anyone to register names within them, subject to the namespace’s pricing rules. These namespaces operate fully in a decentralized manner, with minimal restrictions on name registration and management.
Managed namespaces, on the other hand, introduce an additional layer of control and customization. These namespaces are overseen by a designated manager who has special privileges and responsibilities. Managed namespaces can implement custom rules for name registration, pricing, transfer and renewals. This allows for use cases such as creating namespaces for specific communities, implementing additional verification processes, or enforcing particular naming conventions.
The key differences between unmanaged and managed namespaces lie in their governance and flexibility. While unmanaged namespaces provide a more open and unrestricted environment, managed namespaces offer greater control and the ability to tailor the namespace to specific requirements or use cases.
- namespace-preorder: Reserve a namespace
- namespace-reveal: Reveal the namespace and set its properties
- namespace-launch: Activate the namespace for name registrations
- name-preorder: Reserve a name
- name-register: Register a previously preordered name
- name-renewal: Renew a name's registration
- name-revoke: Make a name unresolvable
- name-claim-fast: Register a name in a single transaction (may be front-runnable)
- mng-name-preorder: Preorder a name in a managed namespace
- mng-name-register: Register a name in a managed namespace
- mng-transfer: Transfer a name in a managed namespace
- mng-burn: Burn a name in a managed namespace
- list-in-ustx: List a name for sale
- unlist-in-ustx: Remove a name from sale listing
- buy-in-ustx: Purchase a listed name
Managed namespaces are one of the biggest updates in this version of BNSv2. Meant to allow for significant more control & flexibility over a namespace, a "managed" namespace is controlled by a single principal (almost always a contract principal). For expected behavior, you must be very careful on setting up this contract principal - if it's not setup correctly, it's possible to to permanently lose control of the namespace.
A few important decisions to make when creating a managed namespace are:
- Will the manager contract ever need to be changed?
- How will your mint process work?
- Can managers transfer any name?
- Will you names be tradeable?
- Does your namespace require metadata?
These are critical decisions that one must consider to future-proof a managed namespace. For the first question, it's almost guranteed that you will need to update or remove the manager contract, therefore, it's imperative that manager contract include access to the 'mng-manager-transfer' function. If the initial manager contract does not include this function, it will be impossible to update or remove the namespace to a new manager contract.
Next, the mint process is vastly more customizable in a managed namespace. At a high-level, managed namespaces have access to the same two paths for name registration: 2 steps / mng-name-preorder + mng-name-register, or a single step / fast-claim. Managed contracts must have access to one or both of these functions to successfully mint names in a namespace; additionally, the mint process can be customized to a high degree to allow for: free mints, token-gated mints, variable pricing, sip-10 token support, etc...
Once minted, you must take special care to implement the three standard sip-09 market functions: list, unlist & buy. Managed namespaces are not tradeable by default, they must include wrapped calls into the list,unlist & buy functions in BNSv2 as those functions specifically check against 'contract-caller' (aka the managed contract).
Lastly, the ability to allow for the managed namespace contract itself to transfer any name is a critical decision. It's almost guranteed that you don't want to allow this, as it would allow the contract to transfer any name to any principal; however, there are some use-cases where much more granular control is required.
Zonefiles also look significantly different in this upgrade. These changes can summarized in two ways:
- Zonesfiles, or links to zonefiles, now live on-chain
- Zonefiles are now decoupled from the BNS-v2 contract Zonefiles now live-onchain & in their own contract. This contract is fairly limited with a single map & only three functions: resolve-name, update-zonefile & revoke-name.
Please make sure you are always interacting with the official versions of BNS-V2
Mainnet
SP2QEZ06AGJ3RKJPBV14SY1V5BBFNAW33D96YPGZF.BNS-V2
SP2QEZ06AGJ3RKJPBV14SY1V5BBFNAW33D96YPGZF.zonefile-resolver
Testnet
ST2QEZ06AGJ3RKJPBV14SY1V5BBFNAW33D9SZJQ0M.BNS-V2
ST2QEZ06AGJ3RKJPBV14SY1V5BBFNAW33D9SZJQ0M.zonefile-resolver
We welcome and encourage contributions to the BNS-V2 project! If you’re interested in contributing to the BNS-V2 contract before its deployment to mainnet, please open an issue to allow the team to review your proposed changes or additions.
This project is licensed under the MIT License.