Chaff names

Understanding "Chaff" Names

When exploring historical ENS auction data or related files (like the preimages.js file from the original ENS DApp), you might encounter the term "Chaff Names". It's crucial to understand that Chaff Names are NOT Prepunks.

What were Chaff Names?

During the initial ENS Vickrey auction, bids were placed blindly. To further obscure the actual name a user was bidding on and prevent others from easily identifying and outbidding their target name, the system allowed bidders to submit their real bid alongside several fake or "chaff" bids for other names.

• Purpose: To add noise and make it harder for observers to determine which name the bidder truly desired and how much they were bidding for it.

• Mechanism: A bidder would submit a transaction containing the hash of their desired name and its corresponding bid amount, plus hashes and nominal bid amounts for several other (chaff) names.

• Data Source: These chaff names often appear in the preimages.js file, which was a list of known domain names used partly to generate these chaff bids.

Why Chaff Names Are NOT Prepunks:

While these names existed as part of the bidding process data:

1. No Finalized Auction, Only startAuction: Chaff names were never the subject of a winning bid in the auction. No auction was ever finalized for a chaff name itself.

2. No Registration Record: They do not appear in the final ENS registration records (like those queried by Dune dashboards) with a valid row_number and registered_date corresponding to a finalized auction within the Prepunk timeframe.

3. Lack Transaction Proof: There is no blockchain transaction proving the finalization of an auction specifically for a chaff name during the required period.

Verification Confusion:

Confusion can sometimes arise because:

• Chaff names might appear in historical data files associated with the auction.

• Some tools might mistakenly check only for the existence of a name in these historical files without verifying if an auction was actually won and finalized for that name within the Prepunk dates.

Key Takeaway:

Always verify Prepunk status using methods that check the finalized registration records and dates (like dedicated verification tools or reliable Dune queries), not just the presence of a name in auxiliary auction process files. Chaff names are merely artifacts of the auction mechanism, not registered Prepunk domains.