FAQ

Who runs Etherpage?

Nobody, and that is a feature. The contracts have no owner, no admin key, no upgrade path and no fee switch. This website is one interface to them; if it disappeared tomorrow, your pages and every feature of the protocol would keep working through any other interface, or straight through the OP Mainnet explorer.

Which chain is it on?

OP Mainnet (chain id 10). Your wallet needs a little ETH there. The avatar collections you can use as a picture, such as CryptoPunks, live on Ethereum, and the site checks them there.

Why does registration need two transactions?

To stop anyone from taking the name you picked. See Registration. The short version: your first transaction hides the name, the second one claims it, and the 20-second wait means nobody can see the name in time to take it first.

What if I close the page between the two transactions?

Nothing is lost. Your registration in progress, with the secret it needs, is stored in your browser and shown on the Register page until you finish or discard it. Only clearing your browser’s site data can destroy the secret, so do not do that with a registration in flight.

How much does everything cost?

A name of 5 or more characters costs 0.0001 ETH per year; see Pricing for shorter names. That fee goes into the page’s deposit, which comes back when the page ends. On top of it you pay OP Mainnet gas: two transactions to register, and one for each save of your records. The site shows the estimate before you confirm.

Do I get my fees back?

Yes, to the page’s payee, when the page ends. Every yearly fee is kept in the page’s deposit. When the page lapses, the deposit goes back to its payee after the grace and premium periods, or sooner, during the premium period, if someone registers the page and takes the deposit over. Then withdraw it from the site, or with withdraw on the contract. The deposit belongs to the page: if you sell or give away the page, it goes with it. See The deposit.

What image do marketplaces show for my page?

Its card. The image is drawn entirely onchain by the PageCard contract: it shows the name, the expiry date or status, and the short address of the payee. It cannot be changed or taken down.

If you hold an NFT from a supported collection you can use that as your picture instead, on this site and in compatible apps. The record names the token rather than copying its image, so anyone can check you really hold it, and the picture goes away if you sell. See Records.

Can someone with a similar-looking name impersonate me?

Labels are plain ASCII (a to z, 0 to 9 and the hyphen), so no lookalike letters from other scripts can be used. Some ASCII names still look alike, such as 0 and o, l and 1, or rn and m. Also, a name with a dot is always a subpage: alice.eth is the subpage alice of a page called eth, held by whoever holds eth, and has nothing to do with alice. When in doubt, check the page’s token id or the address it resolves to.

What happens to my records if my page expires?

During the 90-day grace period the page stops answering, but your data is intact: renew and everything comes back. Anyone can renew, so a friend can renew for you while you are away, and the page always stays with you. If the page passes through grace without a renewal and is registered by someone else, all your records are gone and the new holder starts clean. A trial has no grace period.

I got a page from someone else. Why is its profile empty?

A profile counts only while the account that wrote it holds the page. After a transfer, the text records, the avatar and the website read empty. On the manage page you can keep the profile you found, or write your own, which starts a new, empty profile. Addresses do not follow a transfer either: the page points at you until you set your own. See the profile rule.

I registered a page I used to hold. Anything to watch out for?

Cancel any old marketplace listings you ever made for it. A page registered again keeps the same token id, and marketplace orders live offchain: if an old listing of yours has not expired and your marketplace approval is still in place, getting the page back can make that old listing fillable again at its old price. This is a marketplace mechanic, not a contract flaw.

Can I change or remove my display page?

Yes, at any time, from the manage page of any page you hold, or clear it entirely. The contract also stops showing it by itself if the page expires, moves, or stops resolving to your address.

Is there a token?

No. The protocol runs on ETH, and there is no treasury, no team allocation and no privileged role in the contracts that could create one. Be careful with anyone selling something in the protocol’s name: the contracts are the only source of truth.

What is the referrer share?

A registration can name a referrer: another top-level page. You don’t set it by hand; it comes from a referral link (like ?ref=mypage) or from the site you register through. Opening a referral link remembers it for 30 days, so it still counts if you come back to register later; a newer link replaces it. It is remembered in your browser, so clearing your site data or switching browser or device starts fresh. The referrer is sealed into the commitment, so it is fixed for that registration and nobody can swap it.

The referrer costs you nothing and earns nothing at registration or renewal. It earns only if the page later lapses and someone registers it again during its 21-day premium period: then 25% of the premium goes to the referrer’s payee, and 75% to the page’s last payee. With no referrer, or one that is not a top-level page, that 25% is burned. Each new registration names its own referrer.

It exists to reward bringing people in without an owner: anyone can earn it without asking permission, so running a frontend or building pages into a wallet or app is worth doing on its own.