The eth.link saga is over after the dismissal.
Ethereum Name Service (ENS) has officially dismissed a lawsuit regarding the domain name eth.link.
Eth.link is used as a resolution service for .eth names. Users can enter a second-level .eth name followed by eth.link to resolve the name in their browser.
The owner of the domain went to prison for helping North Korea circumvent sanctions. During his time in prison, the domain expired.
The domain was registered with Uniregistry, which had a expired domain auction partnership with Dynadot. Dynadot auctioned the domain for $852,000, with Manifold Finance winning the bid.
Ethereum Name Service subsequently sued GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY) (which owns Uniregistry), Dynadot and Manifold Finance.
Citing rising litigation costs, ENS asked the ENS DAO in February to agree to a settlement. The DAO agreed to a deal that reimburses ENS Labs for its legal costs and pays Manifold Finance $300,000 to exit while ENS keeps the domain.
The settlement filed with the court today dismisses all parties with prejudice. Manifold was previously dismissed from the litigation for lack of jurisdiction, so the dismissal does not affect it. It is unclear whether ENS ultimately settled with Manifold for the $300,000 the DAO agreed to pay. Presumably GoDaddy and Dynadot sought a settlement with Manifold before agreeing to the dismissal.
