ENS opens ENSv2 Beta on Sepolia with $70,000 audit competition

ENS opened public Beta of its App and Explorer on Ethereum Sepolia on Aug. 12, the last major testing phase before the ENSv2 mainnet deployment. The release introduces the first public version of the ENSv2 upgrade flow for eligible Sepolia .eth names alongside a redesigned registry architecture.

"Beta is the last major public testing phase on the path to mainnet," ENS Labs said in a blog post. The Singapore-based non-profit, which develops the core ENS software, said the new registry reflects years of operating the protocol at scale and is built to support a wider set of blockchain environments.

The Beta App lets users test name upgrades, personalize profile themes, renew names, set specific expiry dates and manage profile records. The Explorer adds permissioned resolver management, subname creation, Name Wrapper fuse controls for ENSv1 names, dedicated TLD pages and unified transaction flows. Payments in Beta are limited to mockUSDC and official testnet USDC, both test tokens with no monetary value.

Security testing continues beyond the Beta launch. An audit competition with Immunefi runs from Aug. 18 through Sept. 14, with a conditional reward pool of up to $70,000 based on the highest-severity valid finding. Mainnet timing will follow the results of public testing, ENS Labs said, with no specific date announced.

Upgrade Flow and a Clean Registry

The new ENSv2 registry deployed on Sepolia creates a clean testing environment, meaning names registered during earlier Alpha phases will not appear in the Beta registry. Participants in prior testing must start fresh. The upgrade flow applies to ENSv1 .eth names registered on Ethereum Sepolia after the Beta contracts were deployed, letting users test how a name transitions into ENSv2 directly within the App.

Two Beta-specific limitations remain. ENS Labs is still merging the framework that makes normalization logic upgradeable before mainnet, so that capability will be ready for mainnet rather than the current Beta. The team is also testing more diverse payment options, with the Beta App featuring a new price cooldown widget to help users understand how cooldown pricing works ahead of the full rollout.

Governance Shift Hands $65 Million to Foundation

The Beta launch follows a governance restructuring that took effect this month. ENS token holders approved the Next Era of ENS DAO proposal, turning the ENS Foundation into a fully fledged operating organization with administrative control over an endowment worth about $65 million in Ethereum and stablecoins, according to the onchain vote. The DAO retains control over the protocol and about 54.6% of the total ENS token supply, with a one-time transfer of 1 million ENS earmarked for employee compensation.

The foundation, chaired by executive director Alexander Urbelis with a board including ENS founder Nick Johnson, handles offchain functions such as representing ENS at ICANN, IETF and W3C, managing trademarks and engaging regulators. Endowment transactions pass through a nine-day timelock that the Security Council can cancel. ENS Labs, which halted development of its planned Namechain L2 in February, remains a separate entity focused on product and engineering work including ENSv2.

The broader integration ecosystem is preparing for the upgrade, with ENS Labs working alongside wallets, apps, resolvers and infrastructure providers to support ENSv2 compatibility, supported by improvements to the Universal Resolver. Mainnet timing will follow the results of public testing, with specifics shared once Beta data indicates readiness.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.