Pilot Program during the Mainnet Launch
What is the ArNS Pilot?
They are coming! Friendly names are just around the corner in the Arweave ecosystem with the Arweave Name System (ArNS), but we need your help to get there! We have created the ArNS Pilot program with test Smartweave Contracts and a test Arweave Gateway, to help us get everything working properly.
This test environment will give no rights to the name you choose through this Pilot or future names on any gateway. However, your help will enable us to make this service great for you and increase the adoption of the PermaWeb.
What is the purpose?
The ArNS Pilot Program was designed to accomplish several goals:
- Test the capability on arweave.dev, using a test token, and collect feedback on the feature.
- Generate excitement for ar.io and it’s new utilities
- Connect with other founders/teams and establish new inroads
- Establish community feedback on ANT/ARNS spec
How long is it?
Until the Mainnet Launch
What happens at the end?
All names created for test purposes and will be deleted at the end of the pilot. The ArNS Test Token will not be used for any other purposes.
At any given time the ar.io Team may change the Pilot program to better help facilitate the program or end it if there are unforeseen circumstances. We will be measuring what names are created, how many, how many tokens are spent and how names are shared in social networks.
While we encourage all participants to provide feedback during the program, once it is completed, we will seek community feedback in order to better position ArNS for a full production launch.
Want to learn more about ArNS
Check out our full update on the Arweave Name System and what it can achieve.
How do I participate in the Pilot Program?
We have partnered with the Arweave Team and the Arweave App Permapages to help you get your friendly name.
All you have to do is go to pilot.ar.io where you will be led through a simple process to claim your test tokens and then be directed to Permapages to register your new permaweb domain (ArNS).
FAQs
The Arweave Name System maps friendly names to any app, page or file stored on Arweave, and allow the user to access this data from each individual Gateway and its Domain Name provider. Decentralized domain services, like Unstoppable Domains, are top level domains that AR.IO Gateway Operators could leverage for their own hosting purposes. Imagine being able to use your ArNS friendly name hosted out of an AR.IO Gateway using an unstoppable domain (like https://my-name.some-gateway.crypto). Other naming services like the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) and Bonfida (Solana name service) provide name services on single domains (like .eth or .sol) and map friendly names to wallets and cryptographic identities. The Arweave Name System (ANS) is also a service that ties friendly identifiers to an Arweave wallet identity.
No. If the name is available in the registry, and you have the test tokens to purchase it, it can be bought and registered instantly using a valid ANT Smartweave contract.
The following rules are applied when a name is purchased. These rules may change during the Pilot program or before the main release.
- The name must not already be taken, and not reserved (like www)
- Valid names include only numbers 0-9, characters a-z, dashes and underscores.
- Dashes and underscores cannot be trailing characters
- Dashes and underscores cannot used in single character domains
- 1 character minimum, 20 character maximum
- Price is determined by the amount of characters in the name
- Price is hardcoded and the caller must have the amount of tokens to spend
- Purchasing a record must include a valid ANT Smartweave Contract address of 43 characters that includes only numbers 0-9, characters a-z, dashes and underscores.
Purchasing a name during the Pilot involves spending the test ArNS token. Name prices are determined by the amount of characters in the name. The fee schedule is as follows, denominated in Test ArNS token.
These fees are for the pilot program only, and will be subject to change for the launch of the main AR.IO token and ArNS Registry.
During the Pilot program, test ArNS Tokens are burnt from the total supply when they are spent on names. We are looking at how this feature will operate for the production release of the AR.IO Network to ensure a balanced token ecosystem.
There are no name renewals in the ArNS Pilot, and all name purchases have no expiry. This is a feature that will be addressed in the production release of the AR.IO Network.
When registering a name, you must use a valid Arweave Name Token Smartweave Contract ID. For example the following Arweave Name Token, ANT-Nosferatu, has the Smartweave Contract ID of da51nhDwLZaLBA3lzpE7xl36Rms2NwUNZ7SKOTEWkbI Nosferatu Token|ViewBlock
This Smartweave Contract contains the necessary features to support resolving an ArNS
subdomain to an Arweave transaction ID.
Valid ANTs must also use Source Code from an approved list of ArNS Smartweave Contract Source
Code Transaction IDs, contained in the Test ArNS Registry. This ensures that the correct
specification is used to support the correct name resolution on the Gateways.
"approvedANTSourceCodeTxs": [
"7hL0La2KMapdJI6yIGnb4f4IjvhlGQyXnqpWc0i0d_w",
"cNr6JPVu3rEOwIbdnu3lVipz9pwY5Pps9mxHSW7Jdtk",
"JIIB01pRbNK2-UyNxwQK-6eknrjENMTpTvQmB8ZDzQg" ]
Made a mistake buying your name during this Pilot program? Reach out to us in discord and we can help fix it for you!
Yes! You can update the Arweave Transaction ID for your friendly name at any time, for only the AR Gas Cost.
If you just purchased or updated a name, it will take AR.IO Gateways up 30 minutes to cache the update. Having issues getting your name updated? Reach out to us for help.
Each name can be accessed from the individual domains of each gateway that resolves names
from ArNS. It is the Gateway Operators responsibility to operate and maintain their own DNS
names.
At this time, the only Gateway resolving ArNS names uses the DNS name
arweave.dev.
There are no secondary marketplaces for trading names yet, although all ANT tokens can be exchanged peer to peer. As a reminder, all names that are registered in the pilot will be deleted at the end.
It is not recommended to use any test name created during this Pilot Program for production
use cases. These names are only hosted out of our test gateway arweave.dev which does not
guarantee the same uptime and performance of arweave.net.
An Arweave Name Token is a Smartweave-based token, that is connected to each registered ArNS Name. The token gives the owner the ability to update the subdomains and arweave transaction IDs used by the registered name.
The Arweave Name Token specification was designed to be flexible and injected into broader-use Smartweave Contracts. However, there is a list of approved ANT Source Contract Transaction IDs within the ArNS Registry. If you have a custom Smartweave Contract (like a Profit Sharing Community) and wish to leverage it in an ANT, please reach out to us in Discord to get your Contract approved and listed.
You need an Arweave wallet to store your Test ARNS tokens and to create and manage your subdomain. Follow this tutorial from the ArDrive Knowledgebase to learn how Create a Wallet
Yes. This Test Pilot takes place on the Arweave Mainnet, using a test Smartweave token. You are required to use an Arweave Wallet, and can connect your registered subdomain to transaction IDs that have been uploaded to Arweave mainnet.
Navigate to Viewblock at ViewBlock | Arweave Block Explorer and check your wallet’s token balance. You should see your ARNS-TEST toke balance.
Once you register for the pilot and your application is approved, you should receive 25M ARNS-TEST tokens. This is enough to purchase a 6 character name.
Still need to do more testing and need more tokens? Ask an admin in our Discord!