ENS Referral Program Rules - May 2026 Edition

Introduction

The "May 2026 Edition" of the ENS Referral Program aims to encourage new growth in ENS adoption. It does this by offering awards that incentivize builders to invest in shipping features and marketing campaigns that promote .eth name registrations and renewals.

Overview

• Award pool: $30,000.00 USDC.
• Edition period: The duration of May 2026.
• Referral awards: A 50% revenue share of the Base Revenue Contribution from each Qualified Referral until the Award Pool is exhausted or the Edition Period ends.
• Participation: Permissionless (anyone can become a Participating Referrer).
• Qualification criteria: To qualify for Referral Awards, a referrer must abide by these rules (including the Code of Conduct) and produce a Base Revenue Contribution to the ENS DAO of $100.00 USDC or more during the Edition Period and before the Award Pool is exhausted.
• Award distribution: No later than 15 days after the Edition Period ends.
• Administration: Led by NameHash Labs.

Rules

"The Edition"

The Edition is the "May 2026 Edition" of the ENS Referral Program.

"Edition Period"

The Edition Period of The Edition is the duration of May 2026, from May 1, 2026 00:00:00 UTC to May 31, 2026 23:59:59 UTC inclusive.

"Edition Administrator"

The Edition Administrator of The Edition is NameHash Labs.

"Qualified Referral" and "Referrer"

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

1. Registration / renewal of a direct subname of ".eth" made through one of the following contracts on Ethereum Mainnet within the Edition Period:
   1. UnwrappedEthRegistrarController (supports referrals for both registrations and renewals)
   2. UniversalRegistrarRenewalWithReferrer (recommended for referrals that renew "wrapped" direct subnames of .eth)
2. The "referrer" parameter passed to the register / renew call is a 32-byte value, while an Ethereum address is a 20-byte value. Therefore, the "referrer" parameter must match the following format:
   1. First 12-bytes: all zeros.
   2. 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 edition, a Referrer cannot customize where any Award Distributions they may earn will be deposited. The referrer's address and the address where any Award Distributions the Referrer may earn will be deposited are one and the same.

"Participating Referrer"

A Participating Referrer is any Referrer who has made a Qualified Referral.

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

"Qualified Referral Year"

Each Qualified Referral is measured in Qualified 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)

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

"Base Revenue Contribution"

A Base Revenue Contribution is calculated for each Participating Referrer as the revenue they contribute to the ENS DAO through all of their Qualified Referrals excluding any premium revenue categories such as short-name premiums or recently-released temporary premiums.

Currently, the Base Revenue Contribution is $5.00 USDC for each Qualified Referral Year. The ENS DAO has the power to modify pricing rules. In the event the ENS DAO modifies pricing rules during the Edition Period, the Edition Administrator will appropriately update the rule for calculating the Base Revenue Contribution.

This rule is designed to mitigate potential abuses of the ENS Referral Program in situations where potential "self-referral" Economic Discounts might otherwise be large due to premium revenue categories.

"Economic Discount"

An Economic Discount is any rebate, refund, credit, incentive, or other benefit that may have the intent or effect of reducing, directly or indirectly, the net price paid for any Qualified Referral beneath the price that would otherwise be enforced by ENS contracts.

Economic Discounts include, without limitation, cash payments, rebates, refunds, cryptocurrency or other digital assets, gift cards, prepaid cards, stored value instruments, or any other assets or consideration that are readily convertible to cash, as well as any arrangement that may offset or reimburse all or part of the price paid for any Qualified Referral.

Economic Discounts do not include bona fide value-added services, features, or enhancements provided by a Participating Referrer as part of the Participating Referrer's services, or promotional or marketing items of nominal value that are not readily convertible to cash (e.g., apparel or branded merchandise).

These rules aim to encourage Participating Referrers to invest in building and promoting better products and services for the ENS ecosystem rather than engaging in zero-sum price competition through Economic Discounts.

"Code of Conduct"

The following Code of Conduct must be followed by each Participating Referrer throughout the Edition Period:

1. Participating Referrers must not offer, provide, or arrange any Economic Discounts, directly or indirectly, and shall not structure any arrangement with the intent or effect of circumventing this restriction.
2. Participating Referrers must configure an ENS primary name for their Ethereum Mainnet address to be a valid ENS name.
3. Participating Referrers must configure the profile of their primary ENS name with a functioning avatar image and information that clearly identifies the project the Participating Referrer uses to produce Qualified Referrals. For example, by identifying the website where their referrals originate from.
4. Participating Referrers must not engage in deceptive marketing, or other abusive promotional practices, including any activities that violate applicable laws (such as anti-spam or consumer protection laws) or other activities that are reasonably likely to harm the reputation or goodwill of ENS.

"Disqualified Referrer"

A Disqualified Referrer is a Participating Referrer who the Edition Administrator, at their sole discretion, has disqualified from earning any Award Distributions for The Edition.

The Edition Administrator may disqualify a Participating Referrer for reasons including but not limited to:

1. Violating the Code of Conduct.
2. The Participating Referrer's project, as identified by the Edition Administrator through point 3 of the Code of Conduct, fails to provide sufficient evidence to satisfy the Edition Administrator that the preponderance of Qualified Referrals produced by the Participating Referrer are made by registrants who are unaffiliated with the Participating Referrer (not "self-referrals" which effectively represent an Economic Discount that violates the Code of Conduct). Each Participating Referrer is responsible for proactively demonstrating such satisfactory evidence to the Edition Administrator during the Edition Period through the Participating Referrer's project's website and/or other means.

If a Participating Referrer becomes a Disqualified Referrer:

• They will be disqualified from earning any Award Distributions for The Edition.
• Any Award Distributions that may have been tentatively awarded to the Participating Referrer for The Edition prior to becoming a Disqualified Referrer will be revoked and returned to the Award Pool.
• The Edition Administrator will publish a public notice of the disqualification including a short description of the reason for the disqualification.

When changes are made to the disqualification status of a Participating Referrer, the Referral Awards for all Participating Referrers will be appropriately recalculated.

The Edition Administrator has the final and sole authority to decide if a Participating Referrer is a Disqualified Referrer or if a disqualification should be removed such that a Participating Referrer might (again) qualify to become a Qualified Referrer. The Edition Administrator has no obligation to offer appeals for disqualifications.

"Eligible Referrer"

An Eligible Referrer is a Participating Referrer who is not a Disqualified Referrer.

"Qualified Referrer"

A Qualified Referrer is an Eligible Referrer with a Base Revenue Contribution of $100.00 USDC or more.

Anyone has the potential to become a Qualified Referrer. The Edition is permissionless.

"Award Pool"

An Award Pool of $30,000 USDC is available for distribution as Referral Awards. In the event the Award Pool is not fully exhausted within the Edition Period, the Edition Administrator may allocate the remaining Award Pool to a future edition of the ENS Referral Program.

"Referral Award"

A Referral Award will be calculated for each Participating Referrer using the following formula:

1. Initialize the "remaining award pool" to equal the Award Pool.
2. Initialize the "total base revenue contribution" of each Participating Referrer to be $0.00 USDC.
3. Initialize each Participating Referrer to not yet be a Qualified Referrer.
4. Initialize the Referral Award for each Participating Referrer to $0.00 USDC.
5. For each Qualified Referral (in the order it was executed onchain):
   1. Let the "associated referrer" be the Participating Referrer who referred the Qualified Referral.
   2. Let the "incremental base revenue contribution" be the incremental Base Revenue Contribution from the Qualified Referral.
   3. Update the "total base revenue contribution" of the "associated referrer" by adding the "incremental base revenue contribution".
   4. If the "associated referrer" is a Disqualified Referrer then let the "incremental award" be $0.00 USDC (including for any referrals the "associated referrer" may have made before becoming disqualified).
   5. Else, if the "total base revenue contribution" is not yet enough for the "associated referrer" to become a Qualified Referrer then let the "incremental award" be $0.00 USDC.
   6. Else, if the updated "total base revenue contribution" is just now enabling the "associated referrer" to become a Qualified Referrer then let the "incremental award" be the minimum of the "remaining award pool" and 50% of the current "total base revenue contribution" of the "associated referrer" (calculate an incremental award for all the past Qualified Referrals made by the "associated referrer" before they became a Qualified Referrer).
   7. Else, let the "incremental award" be the minimum of the "remaining award pool" and 50% of "incremental base revenue contribution".
   8. Update the Referral Award for the "associated referrer" by adding the "incremental award".
   9. Update the "remaining award pool" by subtracting the "incremental award".

All Referral Awards are tentative until the Edition Period ends and the Award Distribution is completed.

"Award Distribution"

The Award Distribution is the process of the Edition Administrator distributing all Referral Awards to all Qualified Referrers.

After the Edition Period ends, The Edition will enter an "award review" state where the Edition Administrator will review all Referral Awards.

The Award Distribution will be completed by the Edition Administrator within 15 days of the Edition Period ending. Once completed, The Edition will enter a "closed" state.

The Edition Administrator will provide publicly auditable records of the Referral Awards and the Award Distribution to the ENS DAO.

Dispute Resolution and Final Authority

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

By participating in The Edition, you expressly acknowledge and agree that:

• The Edition Administrator may resolve any dispute in any manner it deems appropriate;
• The Edition Administrator has the right to refine the rules of The Edition at any time.
• No appeal or further review of the Edition Administrator decision is possible; and
• Your participation constitutes acceptance of the Edition Administrator full and unilateral authority to make final decisions regarding all aspects of The Edition.