The Oldest Ethereum NFT Collection Rediscovered

When it comes to historical NFT projects, the rule of thumb is: older means better. Although legacy collections such as CryptoPunks, CryptoKitties, and Curio Cards have gained new popularity in recent years, the fact that we can trace their provenance back through the annals of the blockchain lends a wealth of historical and cultural value to these projects.

Still, while many collectors take pride in acquiring old relic tokens, a single, classic NFT collection seems to have eluded even professed NFT historians. With the resurgence of the Linagee Name Registrar, the collective NFT community has found itself in awe of the utility-based project, which is almost as old as the Ethereum blockchain itself.

Linagee name registrar

Linagee Name Registrar is a simple domain name registrar created for the Ethereum blockchain. Those familiar with the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) are sure to understand the power and importance of creating and owning a shorthand name that connects directly to their Ethereum wallet.

The name register service was, as the name suggests, created by a anonymous Ethereum developer named Linagee – which also has the distinction of distributing very first ever smart contract on Ethereum. Shortly after deploying the name registrar, Linagee took to Reddit to announce the project.

Deployed on August 8, 2015, the Linagee Name Registrar is only a single week older than the Ethereum blockchain, which launched on July 30, 2015. NFT Archaeologist Mason Keresty rediscovered the project while decompiling every contract within the first 300,000 blocks of the Ethereum blockchain. It seems that the project was largely forgotten and was essentially inaccessible to general NFT enthusiasts.

Since only 60 domain names were originally minted on the contract back in 2015, in an effort to integrate the project back into the NFT ecosystem, Keresty created a new coining app that connected to the original smart contract. Shortly after, the new app was shared throughout the NFT community, resulting in the newly founded Linagee OpenSea collection growing exponentially as enthusiasts raced to register their names.

How does the name registrar work?

Linagee Name Registrar works very similar to ENS in the way that users can purchase and manage domain names for the wallet. However, there are a few differences, with two of the most prominent being that a) Linagee currently only appears to act as a domain for Ethereum wallets (as opposed to ENS being able to be used to name websites, wallets, NFT- are and other digital assets, and b) with Linagee, users can reserve their names indefinitely, while ENS makes users choose and pay for a specific period.

Linagee registrar allows users to claim names using the “reserve” feature. By reserving, users can set a domain name for the wallet using the “setAddress” function. Remember that a name can only be reserved once. If someone has already purchased your specific name, it will appear as unavailable, and will likely only be available through OpenSea.

The new Linagee website also allows the wrapping and transfer of domain names, further expanding the functionality of the registrar system. You can learn more about this and its other features here.

4/ The contract was found by @m_keresty who is also the creator of the coining app. Here’s a quick overview he gave of the features on the contract: pic.twitter.com/bnAUzAioeo

— Leonidas.og (@LeonidasNFT) 30 September 2022

Considering that the Linagee registrar dates back to before the majority of NFT collectors had even been exposed to the weird, wide world of crypto, the significance of the project cannot be overstated. But, significance aside, time will tell if the project can maintain its usability and desirability as part of today’s more mature NFT market.