Register a domain, get free money. That’s what happened to 137,000 Ethereum users this week.

Let me explain: The Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is a decentralized platform that lets you purchase .eth domains and tie them to Ethereum wallet addresses.

• Instead of sending Ethereum to the usual 50-75 character addresses, you register a simple domain like, amazon.eth or bchang.eth (cough cough), and use that to receive ETH, tokens, NFTs, etc.

What’s happening: Since launching a year ago, over 137,000 Ethereum wallets have registered domains on the platform, and last week the ENS became a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization).

• By going DAO, the ENS says they’re now “an open public utility that belongs to the community” without any one member owning a majority of the newly released tokens.

As participants in the DAO, anyone who registered a domain with the service was able to claim tokens in the new organization (called an Airdrop).

• The amount that each user could claim—for free—was determined by how many domains they owned and how long they had been registered for.
  
• The ENS tokens are now being traded on exchanges like Uniswap and the price of each token peaked on its second day of trading just shy of $68.

Why should I care? If you missed this airdrop, don’t worry. Early web3 and crypto participants will benefit from airdrops as more projects opt to go the DAO route.