EDITORIAL: So you think your ENS category is the rarest of them all, do you?

Featured Author: Brommhill

Adapted and published with permission from the original author: @Brommhill

This is an editorial article and does not intend to represent the views, opinions, or beliefs of Ethereum Name Service, ENS DAO, or the ENS DAO Newsletter. Publication does not indicate condonement. The content herein is the journalistic opinion of the original author, alone, and should not be misconstrued as anything else.

Today we’ll shed some light on these “clubs” & categories with a bit of simple math & maybe even talk about some upcoming features set to change the web3 landscape.

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Let’s start small and scale our way up.

Everybody should know by now the rarity of 3 Digit ENS. There are only 1,000 of them, which is true of Western Digits, Arabic Digits, Hindi Digits, etc.

10 ^3 = 1,000

Easy, right?

Next, we have the letters category.

Now, for the sake of simplicity, I will not include every possible language & its alphabet for this example. Everybody knows there are 26 letters in the alphabet, so let’s take that number and multiply it three times.

26 ^3 = 17,576

Within this number exists every three-letter word, acronym, palindrome & any other arrangement you can think of (and they all cost $640/yr).

Emojis are up next, and their “pure” form is most easily quantified due to the vast amount of possible emoji combinations - but we’ll get to that later.

Let’s focus on keeping it simple for now.

Single emoji: 1,356 👨‍💻
Double emoji: 869 🇲🇽🇲🇽
Triple emoji: 1,325 💰💰💰

Now… this next part is where things get a little crazy.

We’ll start with the easier combinations and work our way up. Remember, these possibilities are only limited by their minimum three-character requirements.

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So how many alphanumeric combinations are there in total exactly?

26(letters in alphabet) + 10(digits) = 36

36 ^3 = 46,656

Scaling up…🚀

Admittedly these following combinations are where things become scary… and we’re still only scratching the surface.

Let’s break down how many emoji COMBINATIONS are possible (this includes skin tones and virtually every other emoji you can think of).

As of 2021, there are approximately 3,633 approved emojis in the Emoji 14.0 collection.

3,633 ^3 = 47,950,837,137

Wow! 🤯🤯🤯

If you thought 47 billion was a lot… know that you still haven’t seen anything yet.

Now let’s move on and try to quantify those pesky Unicode characters.

Unicode includes Arabic digits, Chinese words, and anything else you can think of within this massive set of characters.

Total allowed Unicode (excluding emoji) = 51,276

51,276 ^3 = 1.348163e+14 - …trillions!

At this point, the number of possible ENS combinations has become so large that the magnitude becomes lost on our human brains - and we still aren’t done!

…this isn’t even including two character combinations yet.

But we’ll get to that.

So what happens when we combine all of these categories?

Well…

Digits(10) + Letters(26) + Emojis(3,633) + Unicode(51,276) = 54,945

54,945 ^3 = 1.6587637e+14 or more simply put: 165 TRILLION three-character domains!

This number represents the total of all possible three-character ENS combinations.

Anybody ready to mint out the 165 Trillion club?

Next up, we have the elusive 1 & 2-character ENS domains.

So what exactly are 1 & 2-character domains?

“But Brommhill, I thought we’ve already established that ENS has a minimum requirement of 3 characters?”

Well… that’s true!

Two character domains are best explained by the combination of any emoji with two or more “codepoints” (such as 🇺🇸 or 🇮🇳) + 1

Codepoints probably sound confusing if you aren’t familiar with emojis & Unicode, so here are a few examples:

🇹🇯🇹🇯.eth
🧻🖐🏻.eth
_🧖🏾.eth

TLDR - a two-character ENS is any domain that includes an emoji with two or more “codepoints” + any other codepoint to meet the three-character minimum.

Easy, right?

Only 2,225 Special Emojis contain two or more “codepoints,” making the total amount of combinations extensive… but still smaller than the ~165 TRILLION we see with three character ENS.

Try not to laugh, but the total amount of possible combinations for all two character ENS is 1.4652988e+14 or ~146 TRILLION.

Once you combine every possible allowed character within ENS…the numbers start seeming absurd.

Now that we’ve covered doubles, let’s move on to singles.

Before we proceed further, I’d like to remind you again that all ENS domains require a minimum of AT LEAST three characters or “codepoints” to qualify for registration in the first place.

This point is important - remember it. I’m serious.

So how many unique characters consist of 3+ codepoints?

We’ve seen some hilariously prominent figures today, and this final number might surprise you.

If you’ve been paying attention thus far, you should already know the answer to this one.

The total amount of single-character ENS domains? (e.g., 👨‍🎤.eth)

Single character ENS: 1,356

No, you didn’t read that wrong.

Out of the HUNDREDS OF TRILLIONS (and this only includes three character possibilities!) of ENS domains, less than 1,500 qualify for a single character registration!

I know.

Out of the trillions and trillions of possible three-character ENS domains… only 1,356 are capable of legitimately displaying as a singular character!

No matter how you cut it… single emoji ENS domains are the rarest (and shortest!) asset in the entire ecosystem.

Every. Other. Domain. is an array of 2 or more characters. Try to think about the implications of what that entails.

Unique, flashy, and as rare as they come.

The native profile pictures of Ethereum itself - or as @TheZombieth likes to call them: “the end-game of vanity NFTs.”

🏳️‍🌈.eth
👨‍🎨.eth
👁‍🗨.eth
🏴‍☠️.eth
🧟.eth

So, what can we do with this information?

Beyond assuming the role of the rarest asset in all of ENS, these Single Character domains have quite a few perks.

For starters, being one character long means these 1,356 domains are also visually the shortest in length in the entire ecosystem.

Believe it or not, this detail is essential, and I’ll explain why.

If you didn’t know, the Name Wrapper is a soon-to-be-launched upgrade to ENS, allowing domains & subdomains to be “wrapped” by the same token standard ‘ERC-1155.’

(Note: As of August 2022, ENS domains are still classified as ‘ERC-721’ tokens.)

Without getting too technical, you can think of subdomains in their current form as text-record extensions to their parent domain.

You can currently send, receive, and modify the text records of your ENS subdomains. Still, you cannot physically see them in your wallet - it is simply a text extension of the underlying domain.

The Name Wrapper upgrade changes this.

By wrapping both domain & subdomain into one token standard, you can see and even trade ENS subdomains directly from your wallet like any other NFT!

Cool, right?

Wrapped domains mean it will soon become possible (officially) for people to create, buy & even sell subdomains for real profit.

Even better, once permissions are correctly set, the subdomain owner will retain complete control over their new asset.

That means no worrying about your subdomain privileges being compromised by any shady domain owners!

When you own it, you own it - the same as all ENS domains.

Understand when I tell you that tremendous value will be generated by your domains if they’re worthy of sporting the title of superdomain.

Introducing ENS Superdomains.

Superdomain is a term given to any ENS that builds value($$) beneath it in the form of subdomains. The possibilities are vast, but for now, we’ll focus on a few (mostly) hypothetical use cases.

The first and most apparent use case is the flex. 💪💪💪

If you ask anybody “in the know,” they will almost always tell you that shorter = better when it comes to domain aesthetics.

Listen, the introduction of the Name Wrapper means it will become commonplace for users to desire premium subdomains… at least if the parent domain has any significance.

So what does this have to do with Single Character ENS domains?

Well…

Most people don’t want their subdomains to be attached to a long & tedious parent ENS.

Three characters are good… but one is better. At least aesthetically.

Remember, the majority of people will never own a single or premium three-character domain, as most of these domains also come with a premium price tag!

So while you may never own an ultra-premium ENS domain without paying out big… you can still flex one with the power of subdomains!

Thankfully, ENS Subdomains have no native renewal fees (or character limits!), making them the next best option for the massive upcoming wave of new web3 adopters.

Possibilities are vast, and we should expect all sorts of fun & innovative applications to be created in the near future.

Remember, the ENS protocol is extensible by design and can be programmed to do just about anything!

Two of the most compelling examples of the technology so far are from Twitter user @hm0429, who uses ENS subdomains to unlock his apartment & car door.

Pretty cool!

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But when it comes to single character domains… my favorite candidate for Superdomain potential is by far 🏳️‍🌈.eth

The extreme rarity & cultural significance of this domain makes it highly desirable & a great candidate as potentially one of the greatest Superdomains of all time.

Imagine for a moment the possibility of acquiring YourName.🏳️‍🌈.eth because you’ve donated to an LGBTQ charity of the Superdomain owner’s choice.

How cool would that be?!

I predict similar trends of all ENS categories will emerge as subdomains become increasingly more popular.

If we’ve learned anything today, it’s that the total amount of ENS domains and their possibilities are near infinite… but the amount of quality names is becoming increasingly more scarce by the day.

Whether you are rocking a rare emoji, name, or even number domain… be confident knowing you could be holding something extraordinary which will be here for decades to come.

The potential that subdomains & the Name Wrapper will unlock is the next logical phase for ENS… and it will shock the world.

There is no greater value proposition than building with your very own Superdomain… and once more people understand this, there is no going back.

So go search for unicorns, anon… because your time might be running out.