ENS Chooses Taiko as Foundation for its 'Namechain'

Ethereum Name Service (ENS) has selected Taiko's technology stack to power Namechain, its dedicated ZK rollup for decentralized naming services. The move represents a significant endorsement for based rollups as production-ready infrastructure.

Based Rollup Architecture from the Get-Go

Namechain will launch as a fully based rollup using Surge, Nethermind's framework built on Taiko's technology. This architecture choice means ENS can skip the typical "progressive decentralization" path that most Layer 2 projects follow, launching instead with maximum decentralization from the start.

The decision puts one of Ethereum's most critical infrastructure protocols on a rollup with no centralized operators handling sequencing. Instead, Ethereum validators themselves will sequence L2 blocks.

Taiko's Track Record: The Story so Far

Taiko's mainnet has been live since May 2024, processing over 50 million transactions with zero downtime. The network runs sub-second preconfirmations in production and has demonstrated that Ethereum validators can sequence L2 blocks efficiently at scale.

This operational history likely gave ENS confidence that based rollups aren't just theoretical. They're working infrastructure that can handle mission-critical applications.

Why ENS Needs Taiko's Stack

Given its nature, ENS requires near-instant name resolution across chains with strong security guarantees. Traditional Layer 2 architectures force teams to choose between decentralization and performance. Meanwhile, based rollups remove that tradeoff.

Namechain will use preconfirmation technology that Taiko brought to production to deliver state updates in seconds rather than hours. This solves a long-standing CCIP-Read bottleneck that has affected ENS performance. Combined with TEE-backed proofs and based sequencing, the system delivers institutional-grade speed without centralization.

Technical Infrastructure

By building on the Taiko stack through Surge, Namechain inherits several key properties:

• Ethereum-native sequencing with no centralized operators
• Stage 1 rollup status from launch (with a path to Stage 2)
• The same battle-tested codebase running on Taiko mainnet
• Open-source infrastructure with no vendor lock-in

ENS Labs noted  that they were "presented with the rare opportunity to skip several steps in the 'progressive decentralization' pathway" by choosing to build with Surge.

What Does This Actually Mean?

ENS's architectural choice validates based rollups as production infrastructure. When a protocol with ENS's reliability requirements and deep Ethereum alignment commits to this approach from launch, it sets a new standard for the ecosystem.

The deployment shows that teams building critical Ethereum infrastructure no longer need to centralize sequencing to achieve performance. Based rollups are the practical choice for applications that refuse to compromise on decentralization.

Timeline and Collaboration

Namechain is currently in internal testing and expects to launch a public testnet in Q2 2026, followed by mainnet. The project brings together three teams: Nethermind provides infrastructure operations and the Surge framework, Taiko contributes the based sequencing technology and preconfirmations protocol, and ENS brings product vision and naming protocol expertise.

The collaboration demonstrates how open-source Ethereum infrastructure can support mission-critical applications without corporate control or vendor dependencies.

For teams evaluating rollup frameworks, Namechain serves as a reference implementation showing that based rollups aren't aspirational technology and that they're here and working at scale already.

Resources

• Taiko’s official blog announcement
• Taiko’s social media posts
• ENS’ official website