Ethereum Name Service has sued internet domain registrar and web hosting company GoDaddy for selling domain names ending with eth.link. True Names Ltd, the company that owns the rights to sell the eth.link domain claims that GoDaddy falsely announced that True Names’ right to sell the eth.link domain expired and has been sold to a third party.
True Names filed a lawsuit against GoDaddy in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. Ethereum Name Service is responsible for all the web addresses that end with .eth.
The .eth link was registered with GoDaddy in 2018 by former Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith. Griffith previously worked for True Names and the company has been selling the .eth domain ever since. The domain ownership was supposed to be renewed by July 2022 but the renewal process didn’t go through as Griffith is serving a 63-month prison sentence for assisting North Korea in evading sanctions.
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True Names claims that GoDaddy sold the .eth link to another third-party buyer despite having no rights. It is reported that GoDaddy sold eth.link to a firm named Dynadot in an auction for $852,000. Reports state that Dynadot then sold the eth.link domain to another firm named Manifold Finance.
True Names has also named Dynadot and Manifold Finance in their lawsuit accusing them of illegally owning the domain. Manifold Finance tweeted earlier this week “eth.link confirmed”.
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What is Eth.link?
Ethereum Name Service (ENS) sells domain names that end with .eth similarly to how GoDaddy sells domain names that end with .com and many others. Eth.link is mostly used by Web3 firms that provide crypto services and individuals who sell NFTs also use a .eth domain.
The ENS domain sales have rapidly spiked since 2020 and have recorded sales worth millions. It is reported that .eth names have risen 45% this year and will continue to see a sharp spike.