Web3 has wallets, but it doesn’t have identity… yet.

We’ve built entire ecosystems without a native concept of who anyone is. We have long, random strings that accumulate data through onchain activity, but say nothing about who they belong to. These accumulated data are fractional pieces that, when put together, can structure an identity. But currently, it’s opaque, hard to navigate, and nearly impossible to build trust on top of without introducing some core identity primitives. One such primitive is ENS, and it introduces a foundational identity primitive: names. By attaching human-readable names to wallet addresses, ENS begins to shape a structure of identity, turning wallets into people, transactions into relationships, and onchain actions into behavioural patterns. And its most powerful property is the ability to issue Subnames from each ENS name. This unlocks horizontal growth by making everyone an identity issuer using their brand as a unique starting namespace.

What Are ENS Subnames?

ENS is the naming protocol for Ethereum. It replaces hexadecimal wallet addresses 0xbe58…Mk3p with human-readable names like alice.eth. But it doesn’t stop there. ENS name owners can issue subnames under their name, creating clean, unified namespaces for communities, apps, DAOs, rollups, wallets, and more. Subnames allow a main domain, like yourproject.eth, to be broken down into an infinite number of uniquely assigned sub-identities.

Think:

• john.yourproject.eth
• nick.yourproject.eth
• treasury.yourproject.eth

Each of these subnames can point to an individual wallet or profile, and can be updated with records like avatars, social handles, websites, or onchain metadata. Meaning, your members/users get a customizable Ethereum-aligned onchain profile + wallet name that works across 1,000+ projects in Web3.

Why Subnames for Your Community?

Subnames turn your community into a network of verifiable, branded identities. Whether you're running an NFT project, DeFi protocol, DAO, payment app, or creator collective, a wallet, or memecoin project, subnames offer a powerful UX upgrade and a strong identity layer for everyone.

Some of the benefits include:

Brand Visibility Boost

Every subname is a walking billboard for your project. Whether someone is using a dapp, joining a governance vote, participating in an onchain trading competition, or posting and commenting on Twitter/Farcaster with their .yourproject.eth name, your brand is there. It turns your community into active promoters across the internet.

Increased Security

ENS subnames reduce the risk of misdirected transactions and protect against address spoofing, hijacking, and phishing. Instead of copying/pasting random wallet strings, users confidently send to a known, human-readable name they know always resolves to the same wallet address.

Brand Alignment

Subnames carry your brand in every transaction. Instead of dozens of disconnected wallet addresses, your community appears unified and professional (alice.pepe.eth) is instantly recognizable as part of the Pepe ecosystem. A name under a shared rootzone signals membership and a belonging you can verify.

User-Owned and Portable

ENS names and subnames live onchain (L1 or L2), meaning users truly own their subnames. They’re not locked into any one app or platform and can be used in any Web3 experience that supports ENS — wallets, dapps, games, marketplaces, and more.

Multipurpose use

Each subname is more than just a name — it’s a programmable identity layer. It can be used for payments, wallet names, logins, messaging, decentralized content and websites, role-based permissions, as an onchain profile, in-game username, and more. One name unlocks a full stack of functionality across Web3.

Interoperable

Subnames resolve natively across Ethereum and L2s. They work in MetaMask, Rainbow, Coinbase Wallet, Farcaster, Uniswap, Snapshot, and hundreds of other apps. This interoperability unlocks a seamless user experience across the entire Web3 stack. When you move platforms, identity comes with you.

Permissionless and Composable

You can issue subnames through your own app or use turnkey tooling like Namespace and Subpages (white-label solution with subname registrations embedded) to mint them at scale. Set custom permissions, pricing models, or whitelisting logic. Subnames are composable primitives, not just vanity handles.

The psychology of digital identity

A shared namespace does more than unify technical identity; it shapes social dynamics. By giving your community members and users names under a common rootzone, you create a sense of belonging, visibility, and permanence that drives deeper engagement. Subnames act as social infrastructure, reinforcing connection, clarity, and commitment across your ecosystem.

Commitment effect: there’s a well-known behavioral psychology principle that when people invest effort or resources into something, they become more committed to it. Claiming and configuring a name creates a sunk cost that increases long-term participation and advocacy.

Recognition: signaling status without toxicity, with a component of social and public good. Humans are wired for social recognition. People engage more when they’re recognized. This fosters ingroup cohesion, trust, and belonging.

Community examples:

Memecoin communities

Memecoin communities thrive on identity, memes, belonging, and good vibes. ENS + subnames give them a powerful way to scale these. By issuing personalized subnames like alice.pepe.eth, communities can strengthen brand identity, create viral culture, and give every holder a recognizable, onchain badge of membership. These subnames are fun handles and added utility, but they’re also wallet names, onchain profiles, website domains, and cross-platform identifiers. And because they’re built on ENS, they’re universally resolvable, censorship-resistant, and composable across the entire Web3 space. Whether it’s for clout, coordination, or culture, ENS subnames let memecoins go full degen—onchain.

NFT Projects

Beyond just offering wallet usernames and onchain profiles, ENS (as a naming protocol) can be used to name the NFTs themselves. Imagine a 10k PFP collection where every piece gets a unique name, like 1925.punk.eth or the ability to personalize a name for your punk, something like crazy.punk.eth, making each NFT feel more alive and personal. This strengthens collection identity, allows communities to reference NFTs by name instead of token ID, and adds a playful, collectible layer that mirrors naming pets or avatars in games, giving the NFTs more utility and depth.

Web3 Communities & Brands

Whether you're building a protocol, podcast, or media brand, or anything else, issuing subnames like fan.show.eth or member.collective.eth gives your people a sense of belonging and visibility, while at the same time contributing to the global paradigm shift of simplifying crypto user experience: by switching from ‘addresses’ to ‘usernames’, which are portable, cross-platform, and help your brand travel anywhere your users go.

Influencers & Creators

Let your followers claim a subname like fan.influencer.eth or john.creator.eth. These act as membership badges, social handles, or even tokens to gated content. It’s a direct connection between creator and audience and one that persists across platforms.

How to Get Started

Projects can use open tooling like the Namespace SDK or UI dashboard to launch a subname system in minutes. You can customize permissions, issue logic, and allow users to mint directly from your site or dapp.

1. Head over to app.ens.domains
2. Register a parent name like yourbrand.eth
3. Go to app.namespace.ninja
   1. Go to your profile and then the Wizard
   2. Proceed to list/activate the name there
   3. Customize the minting parameters
4. Offer subnames to users via your app, custom website, or integrations
5. Boom—your community now has a unified namespace
6. NOTE* For any assistance or help, join the Namespace Builders TG group.

A Small Name, A Big Shift

ENS subnames are more than just usernames—they’re composable building blocks for onchain reputation, messaging, payments, and identity. They give your project a backbone. A namespace. A shared identity.

Instead of scattered addresses, bring your community together under one roof.

Unify your people. Amplify your brand. Ship your namespace.

🫡

‍