How to Get Back an Old .ETH Name Deposit
One of the frequently asked questions after we released nearly 280k names on 2nd August are how to reclaim the deposit which users put during the original auction when ENS launched back in 2017. Even though these deposits (which is in deed) belong to the original name owners and can be withdrawn at any time, it was somewhat difficult to figure out where and how to withdraw.
There are still nearly 200k deeds left with 95k ETH deposited, so it is important that we provide a way for people to easily search and claim their deposits back.
We created a dedicated site just for that: reclaim.ens.domains.
If you visit the site with MetaMask, it will automatically fill in your Ethereum address and show you how many deposits you still have. You can also search via Ethereum address or ENS name. Unlike normal ENS lookup, this will search the owner address, as many of you haven’t set resolvers nor address to these old names.
One thing to note is the gas price. The gas price is currently so high that transaction cost will be as high as the minimum deposit (0.01ETH), so it may not worth doing it right now if your deposit amount is low.
If you have a lot of names with deposits to reclaim, you may also find it tedious that you have to press the claim button for each name. Unfortunately, the deed contract is only redeemable by the owner hence we cannot write a wrapper contract to batch them up.
Where to reclaim old .ETH name deposits: reclaim.ens.domains
