Outside Ethereum, there’s no doubt that Solana is the runner-up for the biggest smart contract platform; getting a lot of attention from retail investors due to the very cheap fees (always just a few cents!). And after the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) got a lot of attention from the Ethereum community, the Solana community wanted a Solana version of it.
The Solana Name Service 👦👧
While Ethereum has its .eth domains, Solana now has its .sol domains.
After the success of ENS, the Bonfida team decided to create an ENS equivalent, but for Solana. Whereas you can also register your own domains, for easier receiving of funds (a shortened username instead of your wallet address).
SNS registration is pretty similar to ENS, with the major difference that Solana’s SNS domains don’t have an expiration date at all. Once your domain is registered, it’s yours forever!
Prerequisites ✨
- Phantom wallet
- some SOL(for fees) and FIDA(for domain payments)
(NOTE: you can use USDC and a few other tokens to pay for the domain, but it can be buggy. Using FIDA works best)
You can easily buy both SOL and FIDA on FTX here.
How do I register my SNS domain? ✍️
- Head over to https://naming.bonfida.org/
- Connect your wallet
- On the search bar, type in your preferred SNS domain
- If the domain you searched is available(not yet registered by another person), click on Add to cart
- If you’re good with registering/buying 1 domain, click on Continue to cart. On the other hand, if you want to purchase/register multiple domains, feel free to look around
- Under the domain name, you will see an Edit option. Since you can store data on your SNS domain, we heavily recommend just choosing the biggest size (10kb) which will cost you 0.0712 SOL; then click on Update Size
For more information on domain space size, look here. - Click on Checkout, then click on Complete Purchase
- Approve your transaction using your Solana wallet (Phantom works best).
You now have your own Solana SNS domain.
Alternative ways of purchasing 🧐
If the SNS domains you want are already registered by other people, or maybe you just want to purchase existing SNS domains instead, you can purchase some in 2 ways.
Bonfida
On Bonfida’s Browse Domains page, click on the Fixed price resell tab. Domains that are being sold publicly will now be listed.
On the other hand, if you prefer bidding on auctions (you might manage to snag some cool ones for great prices!), just choose the Auction tab.
Magic Eden
You can also purchase SNS domains using the OpenSea alternative of Solana — Magic Eden.
Head over to MagicEden.io, then just type in “Bonfida” on the search bar. Click on the first option, then the list of Solana SNS domains being sold will then be displayed.
Final Thoughts 📘
Happy .sol domain shopping! But also, always make sure your funds are secure. To achieve this, we always recommend using a nice hardware wallet like a Ledger.
