What a .l2p name is
An address is 42 characters that nobody can remember and everybody copies wrong. A name is yourname.l2p, and it points at that address.
names.l2protocol.com is where you find one, register it and manage it. This is the same system Ethereum uses for .eth names, running on the L2 Protocol chain with .l2p as the ending.
What a name does
It stands in for your address. Once your name points at your wallet, anyone who knows the name can find the address. You can give people yourname.l2p instead of a string that starts with 0x.
It shows up instead of your address. Set it as your primary name and every L2 Protocol site shows the name in the wallet button rather than the truncated address: the explorer, staking, governance and the vote. Other apps on the chain that resolve names do the same.
It carries a small public profile. A name can hold an avatar, a description, a website and links to your X, GitHub, Discord and Telegram, all readable by anyone who looks the name up.
It is yours for as long as you pay for it. Names are registered for a period of your choosing and extended whenever you like. Nobody can take a name away from you while it is registered.
What a name is not
It is not a wallet. A name holds no coins. It is a signpost that points at a wallet, and the coins stay where they were.
It is not an identity check. Anyone can register any available name, including names that look like companies, projects or people. A name proves that somebody paid for it, nothing more. See Staying safe while you browse for why that matters before you send anything to a name.
It is not permanent unless you keep it. A name that expires and is not extended eventually becomes available to anyone. Pricing, expiry and the grace period explains the timeline.
What it costs
Names are priced by length, per year, in L2P.
| Length | Per year |
|---|---|
| 3 characters | 640 L2P |
| 4 characters | 160 L2P |
| 5 characters or more | 5 L2P |
Registering for several years costs that many times the yearly price. There is no auction and no bidding, except that a name which has just expired carries a temporary premium for three weeks. Every transaction also costs the usual small network fee. See Gas and transaction fees.
How registering works, in one paragraph
You search for a name, send a sealed commitment, wait a minute, and then pay for the registration. Two transactions rather than one, with a pause between them. That pause is what stops somebody watching the chain from grabbing your name in the seconds before your transaction lands. Find and register a name walks through it step by step.
What you need
A wallet connected to the chain, with enough L2P for the registration and a little more for the fees. Get a wallet if you do not have one yet.
Reading names, searching them and looking up who owns what needs nothing at all.