ENS Foundation has officially become an independent operational entity, receiving a grant of 1 million ENS tokens

BlockBeats News, August 11th. According to official sources, ENS token holders have approved the "ENS DAO New Era" proposal, and the related execution plan has been completed on-chain. The ENS Foundation has officially become an independently operated entity. The Foundation will establish a full-time executive director, dedicated staff, and a 5-member board of directors responsible for representing ENS in ICANN, IETF, W3C, and other institutions and standardization organizations. They will promote ".ens" top-level domain-related affairs, conduct policy advocacy, intellectual property protection, personnel recruitment, ecosystem funding, and other offline operational work. ENS stated that with the Foundation's official operation, ENS Labs will be able to focus more on protocol and product development, including core infrastructure such as ENSv2.

According to the new governance framework, ENS DAO, ENS Foundation, and ENS Labs will form a three-party system with clear division of labor. The assets of the Endowment Fund, supported by .eth domain registration fees, remain unchanged. Transactions will be subject to a 9-day timelock, and the ENS Security Council can veto operations beyond the Foundation's mandate. The DAO holds 54.6% of the total ENS supply, still controlled by the DAO and token holders, with one exception: a one-time transfer of 1 million ENS to the Foundation for employee compensation based on a publicly available salary framework. The Foundation and ENS Labs are separate legal and operational entities. The Foundation does not own ENS Labs, and ENS Labs does not have governance over the Foundation. Token holders can appoint or dismiss Foundation directors.

The inaugural 5-member Board of Directors of the ENS Foundation includes Executive Director Alexander Urbelis, ENS Founder and ENS Labs CEO Nick Johnson, and 3 independent directors: A.Capital Ventures General Partner and ETHGlobal Co-Founder Kartik Talwar, Prelude Co-Founder Brett Sun, and Aragon CEO Anthony Leutenegger. ENS stated that existing custodians, grant projects, and other commitments will continue to be honored. The Foundation will gradually take over sponsorship programs, working groups, and other related affairs. In the future, ENS Labs will continue to be responsible for the core development of the ENS protocol, the DAO for protocol governance and Foundation oversight, and the Foundation will undertake offline institutional functions to support the operation of the protocol. The three parties will jointly promote the long-term development of ENS.