Katherine Ross

Ethereum Name Service’s lead developer Nick Johnson took to social media to call out Unstoppable Domains on Thursday.



Johnson penned a series of posts on X not only criticizing Unstoppable Domains for the lack of legal backing or binding behind its Web3 Domain Alliance group — which it both founded and runs — but also accused Unstoppable of patenting an innovation allegedly made by ENS.



Johnson claims that ENS and <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/unstoppable-domains">Unstoppable Domains</a> attempted to discuss the situation outside of the social media platform, but “failed” to make headway.



He claims that <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ethereum-name-service">ENS</a>, in contrast to Unstoppable, “have not pursued patents on our work.”



The issue at hand can be traced back to January when Unstoppable was granted a patent — Resolving Blockchain Domains — based on “innovations that ENS developed and contains no novel innovations of its own,” according to Johnson.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/what-is-the-ethereum-name-service-ens">What is Ethereum Name Service?</a>



“It’s impossible for any organization to rely on such a nonbinding pledge when it concerns core aspects of its business operations. We are thus requesting that Unstoppable Domains put legal weight behind its PR commitment, with an unconditional and irrevocable patent pledge,” Johnson continued.



If the two remain at odds on the issue, then ENS “stands ready to challenge this patent.”



<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/nick-johnson">Johnson</a> also included screenshots of alleged communication between Unstoppable and ENS.



According to the <a href="https://twitter.com/nicksdjohnson/status/1725167190914011490">post</a>, Unstoppable responded to the initial ENS letter about patents to which Unstoppable said that the pledge proposed by ENS is not “necessary.”



Unstoppable did, however, agree to engage in a “constructive dialogue” but pushed for them to engage in it within the Web3 Domain Alliance instead of directly between the two disputing parties.



In response to Johnson’s open letter, Unstoppable founder Matthew Gould reiterated the open invite to join the Alliance, though Johnson said that the issue was that the patent was not being licensed openly.&nbsp;



“There are no forward guarantees that can be made that make sense given the changing landscape of the industry. IMO the only solution is to increase collaboration and discussion,” Gould responded.&nbsp;



“We will keep the door open,” Gould said in a final post.&nbsp;



Back in July, Unstoppable Domains said it was attempting to expand the Web3 community by integrating ENS domain names and not marking them up. 



The <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/unstoppable-domains-ens-integration">two have been competitors in the past,</a> and the move was not made as part of a collaboration between the two, as clarified to Blockworks this summer.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.



Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin">Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter</a>.



Get alpha directly in your inbox with the <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research">0xResearch newsletter</a> — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.



The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed">Subscribe to daily Solana news</a> from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

ENS lead developer calls out Unstoppable Domain patents on social media

Sebastian Sinclair

<div id="highlights-block_62006d613415f" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Delegates and members of the Ethereum Name Service foundation are weighing a draft proposal to terminate Millegan</li>
 <li>The development is dividing ENS&#8217; community, with some defending the director&#8217;s right to religious views, while others decry discrimination</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Controversy has erupted within the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) community after a more than 5-year-old tweet by the foundation&#8217;s director of operations, Brantly Millegan, resurfaced on Friday.



Delegate members from the Decentralized Autonomous Organization protocol are weighing up whether to terminate Millegan&#8217;s directorship for comments made in 2016 about his views regarding homosexuality, transgender people and abortions, among other topics.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="358" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/tweet-1024x358.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-16819" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/tweet-1024x358.jpg?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/tweet-1024x358.jpg?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/tweet-1024x358.jpg?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/tweet-1024x358.jpg?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/tweet-1024x358.jpg?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/tweet-1024x358.jpg?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/tweet-1024x358.jpg?w=80 80w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/tweet-1024x358.jpg?w=50 50w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/tweet-1024x358.jpg?w=1184 1184w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>Brantly Millegan&#8217;s tweet from 2016</figcaption></figure>



A <a href="https://discuss.ens.domains/t/draft-proposal-dao-wide-proposal-to-terminate-directorship-of-brantly-millegan-at-the-ens-foundation/10277?u=viaeth" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">draft proposal</a> has been put forth to DAO delegates — those with voting rights making decisions affecting the protocol — to weigh in. The draft is not an active proposal, but a consideration for delegates to bring forward a vote on whether he should remain in a director role.



ENS is a domain name service designed to turn Ethereum machine-readable addresses into human-readable ones.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">not really anything to address? i adhere to the world&#39;s largest religion and apparently that&#39;s not allowed in web3?&mdash; brantly.eth (@BrantlyMillegan) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrantlyMillegan/status/1490181411004952576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



The controversy has called into question the nature of DAOs and the relationships they possess with voting delegates. Millegan is ENS&#8217; largest and most powerful delegate with <a href="https://www.withtally.com/governance/eip155:1:0x323A76393544d5ecca80cd6ef2A560C6a395b7E3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">377.68K votes</a>. Coinbase comes in at number two, only slightly behind Millegan with 333K of the DAO&#8217;s total voting share, after the director&#8217;s power gap narrowed following the resurfaced tweet.



Millegan has since been removed from his role as community steward following a &#8220;simple indicative majority vote&#8221; on Sunday, after the director defended his views in a Twitter Space discussion on Friday.



&#8220;After listening carefully to the concerns of the stewards, delegates, and many other community members, I believe it is in the best interest of ENS and the communality to remove Brantly from his role as a Community Steward,&#8221; said community steward member <a href="https://discuss.ens.domains/t/removing-brantly-eth-as-a-community-steward/10408/11" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kevin</a> &#8220;validator.eth&#8221; on Sunday.



While the 2016 <a href="https://twitter.com/brantlymillegan/status/731075016691994624?s=21" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweet</a> has since been removed for violating Twitter&#8217;s rules, a debate has opened up within social circles as to how the director&#8217;s views should be dealt with, if at all.



&#8220;You are accusing Brantly of misconduct but failed to produce evidence of such actions in this proposal. Right now, I see that the DAO has power to remov[e] him, but that’s all,&#8221; said one delegate going by the name &#8220;irreverent.&#8221;



&#8220;I would suggest clearly stating the relevant information (ie, the tweets, spaces, etc.) as well as any guidelines or specific clauses that he has violated. If the current proposal is submitted, I will vote NO because I see no clear misconduct being displayed&nbsp;given the current information within the draft&nbsp;and it feels like an angry mob vote.&#8221;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">&#8220;This vibe is definitely something I do not want the DAO to give off.&#8221;</blockquote>



Those within the community defending Millegan&#8217;s right to free speech point to examples that the director has not acted upon his beliefs to de-platform minorities within the protocol. Others still call into question his public views and their effect on the protocol&#8217;s market health.



&#8220;He is bad for ENS because he creates segregation of users by his words and actions, said &#8220;Healing Visions,&#8221; another ENS delegate weighing in on the draft proposal. &#8220;Many have removed their .eth name, the price is down and will abandon the platform. If you can’t get behind it from a human perspective, which would be very sad, then from a business perspective it doesn’t make sense to keep him.&#8221;



The lead developer of ENS, Nick Johnson, announced Monday morning that Millegan would no longer be working with True Names Limited, the nonprofit company that funds ENS development.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">True Names Limited (TNL), the nonprofit that funds and organises development on <a href="https://twitter.com/ensdomains?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ensdomains</a>, has terminated the contract of Brantly Millegan effective today.&mdash; nick.eth (@nicksdjohnson) <a href="https://twitter.com/nicksdjohnson/status/1490581937375027202?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Blockworks attempted to contact Millegan to discuss the draft proposal but did not receive a reply by press time.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Subscribe to the Empire newsletter</a>.



Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin">Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter</a>.



Get alpha directly in your inbox with the <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research">0xResearch newsletter</a> — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.



The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed">Subscribe to daily Solana news</a> from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.