Your Name, On Abstract

Every crypto user knows the problem. Wallet addresses are hard to read, easy to mistype, and impossible to remember. You send someone a long string of characters and they have to check it twice. You look at activity onchain and see addresses, not identities.

@AbsNameService fixes that. One name, ending in .abs, that points to you on Abstract Chain.

With ANS, you can register a human-readable .abs name such as alex.abs. That name is minted to your wallet as an ERC-721 NFT, so you own it like any other onchain asset. You can transfer it, hold it, or sell it. Instead of sharing a raw address, you share a name people can actually read.

What matters, though, is being precise about how it works

What ANS actually does

ANS is a naming protocol built on Abstract mainnet. Ownership, records, and resolution live onchain. The V2 smart contract is the core registry for names and records, while pricing and discount logic use companion contracts, including a Pyth-powered price oracle for USD-based pricing.

That distinction matters. The source of truth for ownership and records is onchain state, not an offchain cache or API response. If an app is doing anything important, it should treat onchain reads as authoritative.

When you register a name, you are registering ownership of that name. The name does not automatically start resolving to your wallet address unless you also set its primary record. That happens separately on the Manage page.

So the flow is:

Register the name.
Set the primary record you want the name to point to.
Optionally add profile fields such as avatar, Twitter, Discord, website, and email.

Each of those profile fields is written onchain individually.

Registering a name

The registration flow on the site is straightforward, but there are a few details users should understand.

You open the Register page, connect your wallet, and search for the name you want. The UI can show several different states, including:

Available on V2
Registered on V1
Owned by your wallet
Unavailable

That distinction matters because a V1 name is not always something you can simply register on V2. Some legacy names are reserved for migration instead.

If the name is available, the app shows the quote before you sign anything. That quote can include:

The base USD price
Any eligible holder discount
Any valid coupon discount
The Pyth update fee
The final estimated payment in ETH

ANS registration pricing is oracle-based. Prices are defined in USD and converted to the live ETH equivalent at registration time using Pyth data, instead of relying on a fixed token amount.

Pricing

Pricing is based on label length. Shorter names cost more.

🚨 And guess what? You can get 20% off if you use the code "HORIZON". 🚨

Eligible NFT holders can receive a discount, and valid coupons can reduce the final amount further.

The logic is simple: short names are scarce, so they are priced higher. Long names stay cheap enough to make readable onchain identity accessible.

Managing your name

After registration, the Manage page is where the name becomes useful.

You can set a primary record — usually a wallet address — and then add profile fields such as:

avatar
twitter
discord
url
email

These are stored as onchain text records. Each one is its own write transaction, so each save action requires confirmation.

That means ANS does not just give you a name. It gives you an onchain identity layer that apps can read directly from the contract.

What developers get

ANS ships with an official TypeScript SDK for ANS V2 on Abstract.

The SDK covers common reads and writes, including:

Resolving names
Reverse lookup
Reading records and text records
Checking availability
Fetching names owned by a wallet
Registering names
Setting records
Transferring names
Migrating eligible V1 names
Watching contract events

It also includes helper functions for the Pyth registration flow, which matters because ANS registration requires current oracle update data.

One especially useful detail is the prepare-only registration helper. It can build calldata and the exact payable amount for a registration without signing or broadcasting the transaction. That makes it useful for smart accounts, agent workflows, or systems where one component prepares a transaction and another executes it.

Subdomains and project namespaces

ANS also supports project subdomains.

The registration format uses one dot internally, in label.project form, which is presented to users as names like bob.moody.abs. Pricing is based on the label length, not the full displayed string.

Project namespaces can be enabled by ANS, and once enabled they can support community registrations under that root. Registered subdomains are standard ERC-721 assets just like top-level names.

The economics are clear

70% of registration revenue goes to the project wallet
30% goes to ANS infrastructure through the platform treasury split

Projects can also define custom pricing tables for their namespace.

One important caveat: not every enabled namespace is necessarily open to everyone. Some subdomain roots can enforce additional requirements, including NFT-gated registration.

AI agents and MCP

ANS also ships with an MCP server.

That means MCP-compatible tools such as Codex, Claude, Cursor, and VS Code can use ANS for things like:

Resolving names
Reading ownership and profile data
Checking subdomain root configuration
Quoting registrations
Preparing registration transactions

For agent identity, the relevant namespace is name.agent.abs.

It is important to be exact here: MCP support does not automatically mean the server signs transactions for every client by default. ANS supports both prepare-only flows and an autonomous mode using managed agent wallets. In the managed-wallet flow, an agent can sign and broadcast its own name.agent.abs registration and profile updates through the MCP system.

So the forward-looking part is real, but the mechanism matters: ANS can support autonomous agent identity, and managed agent wallets are what make fully autonomous execution possible.

Migrating from V1

ANS V1 users can migrate eligible names to V2.

The cutoff is strict:

V1 token IDs 0 through 1965 are eligible
Token IDs above 1965 are not eligible

Migration works by burning the V1 token and minting the same name on V2.

One thing users should know in advance: records do not auto-migrate. After moving to V2, you need to set your primary record and profile fields again.

The bigger picture

ANS is an independent project built on Abstract. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by @AbstractChain.

If you want a readable onchain identity on Abstract, ANS is the clearest version of that idea today: a name you own, records you control onchain, developer tooling that integrates directly with the contract, project namespaces for communities, and support for AI-native workflows through MCP.

That is what ANS actually is, without the fluff and without overstating what happens under the hood. Remember: 20% off with the code "HORIZON".

⚠️ This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Always do your own research before making any investment or onchain decisions.