ENS Holiday Awards - Program Rules

Introduction

"ENS Holiday Awards" is a trial incentive framework designed to issue awards in $ENS for referred .eth name registrations and renewals.

This trial is proposed to run for the duration of December 1-31, 2025 with a fixed award pool of $ENS equivalent to $10,000 USD for Qualifying Referrers.

This trial is planned and organized by NameHash Labs as part of our efforts to advance a broader ENS Referral Program. These efforts are part of our SPP2 deliverables to the ENS DAO, which include our commitment to ultimately fund $50,000 USD in ENS Referral Program awards throughout the duration of SPP2.

The ENS Holiday Awards are designed as a time and budget constrained trial. This gives an opportunity to test execution and identify opportunities for improvement before follow-up ENS Referral Award Programs are introduced.

Overview

• Program Period: The duration of December 2025.
• Budget: $10,000 USD (funded by NameHash Labs).
• Awards: Distributed in $ENS (converted from USDC at program conclusion).
• Participation: Permissionless (anyone can participate as a referrer).
• Implementation: Led by NameHash Labs.

Referral Incentives

$10,000 USD in $ENS distributed proportionally to each Qualifying Referrer based on their Referrer Award Pool Share.

Referral Award Distributions in $ENS

This program explores multiple key questions, including: What if referral awards were distributed in $ENS?

This award mechanism may provide strategic benefits to the ENS DAO, including:

1. Preserving ENS DAO Revenue: Future referral awards in $ENS tokens could be possible without dilution of ENS DAO revenue (or with reduced dilution). This has benefits vs. exclusively awarding as revenue sharing paid in ETH or USDC.
2. Expanding ENS DAO Governance Participation: Awarding ecosystem contributors in $ENS can boost engagement in DAO governance from parties who are invested in the success of ENS.

Program Rules

"Program Duration"

The Program Duration is the duration of December 2025:

Dec 1, 2025 00:00:00 UTC to Dec 31, 23:59:59 UTC.

"Qualifying Referral" and "Referrer"

To be a Qualifying Referral, registrations / renewals must satisfy all of the following conditions:

• Registration / renewal of a direct subname of ".eth" made through one of the following contracts on Ethereum Mainnet within the Program Duration:
  • For registrations and renewals: UnwrappedEthRegistrarController activated by the ENS DAO via EP6.16.
  • For renewals: UniversalRegistrarRenewalWithReferrer developed by NameHash Labs in coordination with the ENS Labs team to provide a recommended referred-renewal pathway for wrapped direct subnames of .eth.
• The "referrer" parameter passed to the register / renew call is a 32-byte value, while an Ethereum address is a 20-byte value. Therefore, to qualify for this program, the "referrer" parameter must match the following format:
  • First 12-bytes: all zeros.
  • Last 20-bytes: Ethereum mainnet address identifying the Referrer and where any Award Distributions the Referrer may earn will be deposited.

Resources and additional instructions for the technical implementation of referrals can be found in the ens-referrals GitHub Repo.

To reduce complexity with this initial trial:

• No restrictions will be made for "self-referrals". However please please note the related definition of Qualifying Referrer below which is expected to generally discourage self-referrals.
• Referrers cannot customize where any Award Distributions they may earn will be deposited. The referrer's address and the address where any Award Distributions they may earn will be deposited are one and the same.

"Qualifying Referral Year"

Each Qualifying Referral is measured in Qualifying Referral Years:

• For registrations: equal to the number of years the name was registered for.
• For renewals: equal to the number of years the name was renewed for.

Here we define a year as 31,556,952 seconds.

(60 seconds per minute * 60 minutes per hour * 24 hours per day * 365.2425 days on average per year)

Qualifying Referral Years support measurement in fractional units. Ex: A renewal of 6 months would represent 0.5 Qualifying Referral Years. A registration for 2 years would represent 2 Qualifying Referral Years.

"Referrer Point"

One Referrer Point is awarded for each Qualifying Referral Year.

Referrer Points support measurement in fractional units. Ex: 0.5 Qualifying Referral Years award 0.5 Referrer Points.

To reduce complexity with this initial trial, no weight adjustments will be made for short (3-4 character) names or registrations made with a temporary premium price.

"Referrer Score"

A Referrer Score is the sum of Referrer Points awarded to a Referrer.

"Participating Referrer"

A Participating Referrer is a Referrer with a Referrer Score greater than zero.

Anyone has the potential to become a Participating Referrer. The program is permissionless.

"Referrer Rank"

A Referrer Rank is the ranking of a Participating Referrer relative to other Participating Referrers according to the following rules:

• The highest Referrer Rank is 1.
• Each Participating Referrer is guaranteed to have a distinct Referrer Rank based on the following sorting rule to compare any pair of Participating Referrers:
  • If the Participating Referrers have different Referrer Scores, the Participating Referrer with the higher Referrer Score wins.
  • Else, the Participating Referrer with the "higher" address using lexicographic comparison of ASCII hex strings wins the tie.

"Max Qualifying Referrers"

For ENS Holiday Awards the Max Qualifying Referrers is 10.

This mechanic is motivated by goals including:

• Encourage more competition. There's a meaningful difference to outcomes for ranking in the top 10 vs rank 11+.
• Gather information on how such a rule impacts referrer behaviour.
• Constrain the operational complexity of the Award Distribution.

"Qualifying Referrer"

A Qualifying Referrer is a Participating Referrer with a Referrer Rank within the Max Qualifying Referrers.

Anyone has the potential to become a Qualifying Referrer. The program is permissionless.

"Referrer Final Score Boost"

A Referrer Final Score Boost is calculated for each Participating Referrer as follows:

• If the Participating Referrer is a Qualifying Referrer:
  Referrer Final Score Boost = 1 −

  Referrer Rank − 1

  Max Qualifying Referrers − 1

• Else:
  Referrer Final Score Boost = 0

This mechanism is motivated by goals including:

• Encourage more competition. There's a meaningful difference to being a Qualifying Referrer with rank N vs. rank N+1.
• Gather information on how such a rule impacts referrer behaviour.

"Referrer Final Score Multiplier"

A Referrer Final Score Multiplier is calculated for each Participating Referrer as follows:

Example calculations:

Example graph of Referrer Final Score Multiplier vs. Referrer Rank:

View example calculations in spreadsheet.

"Referrer Final Score"

A Referrer Final Score is calculated for each Participating Referrer as follows:

"Grand Total Qualified Referrer Final Score"

The Grand Total Qualified Referrer Final Score is the sum of Referrer Final Score values for all Qualified Referrers.

"Referrer Award Pool Share"

A Referrer Award Pool Share is calculated for each Participating Referrer as follows:

• If the Participating Referrer is not a Qualified Referrer:
  Referrer Award Pool Share = 0

• Else:
  Referrer Award Pool Share =

  Referrer Final Score

  Grand Total Qualified Referrer Final Score

"Total Award Budget" and "Total Award Pool"

The Total Award Budget is $10,000 USD. This will be converted into the Total Award Pool measured in $ENS tokens. NameHash Labs will execute this USDC to $ENS conversion in early January at a specific time and method of their choosing.

The Total Award Budget has been defined in USD terms for ease of familiarity.

The Total Award Pool is what will ultimately be distributed to Qualifying Referrers as awards.

"Award Pool Distributions"

After the Program Duration ends, each Qualifying Referrer will receive an Award Pool Distribution calculated as Total Award Pool * their Referrer Award Pool Share.

In other words, $10,000 USD in $ENS distributed proportionally to each Qualified Referrer based on their Referrer Award Pool Share.

"Award Distribution"

NameHash Labs aims to perform Award Distribution by no later than Jan 15, 2026.

Publicly auditable records of the Award Distribution will be provided back to the ENS DAO.

Dispute Resolution and Final Authority

NameHash Labs reserves the exclusive right to interpret, apply, and enforce all rules related to this program. In the event of any dispute, ambiguity, or claim arising out of or relating to this program, including but not limited to eligibility, qualification, reward calculation, participant conduct, or program administration, NameHash Labs' determination shall be final, binding, and made in NameHash Labs sole discretion.

By participating in the program, you expressly acknowledge and agree that:

• NameHash Labs may resolve any dispute in any manner it deems appropriate;
• No appeal or further review of NameHash Labs decision is possible; and
• Your participation constitutes acceptance of NameHash Labs’s full and unilateral authority to make final decisions regarding all aspects of the program.