As with domains on the internet like .com, .net, etc., domains on the Ethereum Naming Service also need to be renewed before they expire. In the event that an ENS Domain owner does not renew their domain before it expires, they lose control of the domain. We are going to explore the renewal timelines for the ENS Domain in this post.
In an ideal scenario, everyone is well planned, and they renew their domain names before the deadlines, so that they keep control over their ENS. Also this means no one rushes in the last hour and scrambles to renew their domains.
But what is the reality of the situation? How early are users renewing their domain names? Let’s find answers to these questions using the Ethereum blockchain data.
Before we start looking at the data, few words about the data we considered for analysis – we are going to look at the renewals that happened 365 days before and after expiry date. This will make sure we eliminate outliers like, someone renewing their domain 10 years before their expiry or someone registering a domain that was expired around 2 years ago.
The following chart shows the number of ENS domain renewal events on the y-axis and the days until expiration of the domain / days past expiration of the domain on the x-axis. Can you spot anything noteworthy in these charts? Most domains were renewed just a day before they were due to expire, about 1,520 ENS domains. And 694 ENS domains were renewed on the day of expiry! Other 3 spots you see in the chart with more than 1,000 renewals are – 1,270 domains were renewed 10 days before their expiry; 1,260 domains were renewed 2 days before they were due to expiry and another 1,130 domains were renewed four days they were due to expiry! This shows most of the ENS domain owners who renew their domains are taking it to the last moments renew.
In the left half of the chart, x-axis values below 0 indicate domains that were renewed after their expiration dates. The ENS domains of those who fail to renew them are often renewed, or taken by others, within 60 days of expiration.
Now let’s take a closer look at ENS domains renewed within the last 24 hours before expiry date in the following chart. There were 34 ENS Domain owners who renewed their domains with less than an hour left to renew. It appears that those waiting for the last day to renew are waking up six hours before expiry :). About 13.99% or 209 ENS domain owners have renewed their domains with 6 hours left.
Premium Domain Renewals
ENS domain names with 1-4 characters length are considered premium and they attract heavy yearly registration fees, 160$-640$, compared to the domains with 5 or more letters that costs only 5$. Those who pay premium are likely to renew them ahead of the time as they don’t want to lose those rare and hard to get domains. But there are quite a few domain owners who pushed renewals down the wire and renewed them in the last hour. The following chart shows the list of domains and the last hour at which they were renewed.
The domain names with green bar charts are the ones that were renewed before expiry date and the ones on dark pink+red shade are the ones renewed hours after expiry!
Are premium domains typically renewed well in advance of expiration?
Yes, they are when compared to general domains with 5+ letter names. The following chart shows the number of days (median) left before ENS domains were renewed. The ENS domains are classified into three groups – domains with 1-3 letter characters (premium+), 4 letter domains (premium) and 5+ letters domains. As shown in the charts below premium domain owners are renewing them well ahead of expiry date compared to the general ENS domain owners.
A ENS Domain That Was Renewed 11 Minutes Before Expiry Date!
There are a few who like to push things to the extreme and live life by the edge to the fullest! Let’s take a look at one such person who renewed their ENS domain just 11 minutes before its expiration! The owner of ENS domain 0xjac.eth renewed the domain on Aug 24th 2020 and it was due to expire on Aug 25th 2021 at 11:06 AM. The owner renewed the domain 11 minutes before expiry on Aug 25th 2021 at 10:55 AM. Follow the transaction id links in the table below to view the transactions on etherscan.
| ENS Name | 0xjac.eth |
| Past Renewal Date (tx_id) | 08/24/20 09:25 AM |
| Expiry Date | 08/25/21 11:06 AM |
| Renewed On (tx_id) | 08/25/21 10:55 AM |
| Minutes To Expiry | 11 Minutes |
Another such instance that caught my attention was the owner of the premium domain cmt.eth. This owner renewed the domain 22 minutes after the due time, thanks to ENS policy of allowing domain owners to renew them upto 90 days after expiry date.