In the time leading up to the launch of ENS Usernames I started modeling the potential economic value (ENS utility value exploration / Barry G | Observable) in order to better understand how the different levers we can pull on impact economic value in the network.
With ENS Usernames now live on Mainnet it’s worth seeing how the reality tracks against the model. The key metrics are: number of usernames registered and gross value of registrations
Starting with the number of registrations we absolutely blew away the expectation. Based on the assumed user count and registration conversion rate the model expected a total of 1250 registrations by the end of the first year or 396 as of today. What actually occurred was 915 username registrations or 73% to goal with 2.5 quarters still left to go!
In regards to the gross value of the registrations, the model assumed an average price per name of $1 equivalent which would have a produced a gross value of $396 as of today. As the price was set to 10 SNT per name and with SNT having an average price ~$0.02 during the period, it produced an average price per name of ~$0.22. The result being an actual gross value below the expected. The actual value is currently only 16% to goal while expected would have been 36%.
With these two data points my personal conclusion is that the price for registration should be raised.
Raising the price now will also give us a new data point in helping to discover how price sensitive username registration is, which ultimately will allow us to build more accurate models that lead to better decisions and products.
What are your thoughts, questions or criticisms on raising the price of usernames?
I wonder how much registration was from users who actually did it with their own SNT vs those that were given 10 SNT at Prague + ETHDenver to register a username.
If we look at dates of registrations, you’ll probably see two spikes - so everything outside of those spikes are organic registrations.
I agree with @naghdy that a good part of registration probably came from given SNT at conferences.
However, raising the price should not really deter organic registrations since, as you said, the total price right now is below 1$.
IMO, the main reasons not everyone has registered their ENS names is either they didn’t know the feature is there, or its a throwaway account/forgotten account (so accounts that are not in use anymore). I’m saying that, because the feature is helpful enough for the price to not really matter in the end.
Raising the price makes sense to me, and it would be interesting to see the price sensitivity.
It would also be interesting to see what affect the following have on ENS registrations:
Ease of obtaining SNT: Giving out QR codes with SNT worked well in Prague/Denver. So, the introduction of Teller Network & other avenues that allow people to easily obtain SNT should impact ENS registration.
User flow/design: Outlined by @hesterhere, the “feature welcome” to Status suggesting certain actions (such as buying SNT or registering an ENS name) to new users.
