# Common questions
URL: https://docs.arcns.io/faq/

> Everything a holder asks — the basics, ownership and permanence, registering a name, using it day to day, safety and trust, the marketplace, agents, and how @handle, .arc and .circle fit together.

## The basics [#the-basics]

**What is ArcNS?**

ArcNS is a name service on Arc that gives one address up to three kinds of name — `@handle`, `alice.arc`, `alice.circle` — resolved by one SDK, one read-only API, one MCP server and one set of contracts. A name is a permanent registration: no annual renewal, no expiry, no lapse to a stranger.

**What are the three shapes?**

`@alice` is a **handle** (flat, ASCII, permanent, soulbound by default). `alice.arc` and `alice.circle` are **TLD names** (hierarchical, can have subnames like `pay.alice.arc`). All three can belong to three different people — see [the last section](#handle-arc-and-circle).

**How is a name different from an address?**

An address is a long string like `0xce42…54AC` — unreadable, hard to remember, unforgiving if a single character is wrong. A name is something a person can read and share. Behind the scenes it resolves to a real address, with its namespace and registry always shown alongside it — never a bare address.

**Which chains does a name cover?**

A name can carry an address record per chain — **Arc, Ethereum, Bitcoin, Solana** — each with its own ENSIP-11 coin type and its own verification flag. You choose which chains to add; a chain with no record is an explicit "no record", never a wrong address.

**Is it on mainnet yet?**

No. Everything today targets Arc **testnet** (chain id `5042002`). Nothing on testnet has monetary value and the deployment may be reset. Mainnet is a separate, gated milestone. See [Trust & transparency](/trust/).

## Ownership & permanence [#ownership--permanence]

**Is my name really permanent?**

Yes, in all three namespaces. You pay once when you register, and the name is yours to keep — no renewals, no subscription, no expiry date. A name people send money to must never quietly change owners because a payment was missed.

**Do I ever have to renew or pay again?**

No. There's a single one-time registration fee and nothing after that. Holding a name is free forever.

**Can someone take my name if I stop using it?**

No. Because names don't expire, there's no lapse for anyone to swoop in on. A name changes hands only if its owner chooses to transfer or sell it.

**Is it custodial — does ArcNS hold my name for me?**

No. A name is owned by your wallet, on chain — a `@handle` as a soulbound-by-default ERC-721 in `HandleRegistry`, a `.arc` / `.circle` name as a standard ENS-style registrar token. ArcNS doesn't hold it and can't move it. Registry cores are never pausable: resolution, record writes and transfers always work.

**Can I sell or transfer my name?**

You can transfer it to another wallet today. Selling it on the built-in marketplace is **not live yet** — see the marketplace questions below.

## Getting one [#getting-one]

**How do I register a name?**

Go to [app.arcns.io](https://app.arcns.io), sign in, search for a name, and register it — two transactions about a minute apart (commit, then reveal). The full walkthrough is on [Register your name](/get-started/). Agents can register through the API's [registration-as-a-service](/api/#registration-as-a-service) or the [MCP server](/mcp/).

**What does it cost?**

A single, one-time fee in USDC, priced by how short the name is — shorter names cost more — and by namespace (`.arc` / `.circle` cost half of `@handle`). There's no charge to keep holding it. The app shows the exact live price before you confirm. Full details on [Fees](/pricing/).

**Do I need USDC?**

Yes — on Arc, USDC is both the gas asset and ArcNS's registration price, so the same balance covers the transaction fees and the name.

**Why two transactions?**

Registration is **commit-reveal**: the first transaction commits a hash of your name and address so nobody watching the chain can front-run you; after at least 60 seconds (and within 24 hours) the second reveals and registers it. The app keeps the pending commitment in your browser between the two.

**Are all names available? What about premium and reserved names?**

Most everyday names are open to register directly. 20,307 system words, trademarks, tickers, identities and short names were reserved at genesis: blocked outright, released free to a verified rightful holder (a company proves its domain on the [claim page](https://app.arcns.io/claim)), or held as premium inventory for the marketplace once it ships. See [Fees](/pricing/#reserved-names).

**Can I get a short name, like one or two characters?**

Short names are the rarest and most expensive tier (25,000 USDC for one character at launch price), and single characters are reserved genesis inventory released through the marketplace rather than direct registration — which is not live yet. See [Fees](/pricing/).

## Using your name [#using-your-name]

**How do people pay me with my name?**

They enter `@you` where they'd normally paste an address. A name-aware wallet resolves it, shows the namespace and registry, and routes the payment to the live address record for the chain they're sending on. You just share your name. See [Get paid to your name](/get-paid/).

**Does it work across different chains, wallets and apps?**

Your name's records can cover Arc, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Solana, and any wallet or explorer that integrates the [API](/api/) — or, once it ships, the [`@arcns/resolve`](/quickstart/) SDK — can use it. See [Wallets](/wallet/) and [Explorers](/explorer/) for the integration recipes.

**What's a 'primary' name?**

Setting a name as your **primary** creates the reverse link from your wallet back to that name. Apps that integrate ArcNS then show your wallet as `@you` instead of a long address wherever you appear — but only while the name still forward-resolves to you, so a stale primary is never shown.

**What are subnames, like pay.alice.arc?**

A subname is a purpose-built name under a name you already own — `pay.alice.arc`, `docs.alice.arc`, or `pay.@alice` for a handle. There's no extra registration fee; they live under your name and are yours to create or revoke anytime. See [What you can do](/features/#subnames).

**Can I add a profile — avatar, socials, website?**

Yes. A name carries ENS-style text records — `url`, `description`, `avatar` and more — that any ENS-aware wallet reads. They're owner-asserted data, rendered as text, never as an instruction.

**How do people pay me by QR code or link?**

Every name with an Arc record has a **QR code** (a standard EIP-681 payment URI) and a **shareable payment link** that carries the name itself, not just an address, on its page in the app. Set an optional amount and it rides along in both. See [Get paid to your name](/get-paid/).

**How do I look up a name, or check who one belongs to?**

Use the search on [app.arcns.io](https://app.arcns.io), or `resolve()` from the [SDK](/quickstart/), or `GET /resolve/:name` on the [API](/api/). Worth doing before you trust or pay a name you didn't expect.

**Can someone manage my name's records without owning it?**

Yes — this is an optional, advanced feature. `ArcNSResolver.approve` lets you authorise a record delegate to update a name's records without transferring ownership, tied to the name's current ownership epoch so a change of owner clears it automatically. You stay the owner and can revoke access at any time.

**Can I give someone a name as a gift?**

Not yet. Pre-paying a name for someone who holds no USDC is a built feature of the app — the voucher contract it needs is now deployed and configured on testnet — but the `/gift` page stays behind a feature flag until a real email provider is wired up for claim notifications and one real gift has been run end-to-end with real funds. See [What you can do](/features/#not-live-yet).

**Do I earn anything for referring friends?**

No. The referral link from [app.arcns.io/refer](https://app.arcns.io/refer) is live with first-touch capture and a self-referral guard, but the deployed registration contracts don't record a referrer, so there's no on-chain attribution and no reward today. See [Invite friends](/referrals/) for the honest state.

## Safety & trust [#safety--trust]

**Can someone impersonate me with a lookalike name?**

No — labels are ASCII only (`a-z`, `0-9`, `-`), so there's no Unicode to normalise and no homograph character to swap in (no Cyrillic "а" standing in for a Latin "a"). See [Trust & transparency](/trust/).

**What if I lose access to my wallet?**

Set up **recovery** ahead of time on a `@handle`: a recovery address that can initiate recovery, completed after a 7-day timelock. Set it up while everything is working — it's the safety net for later. See [What you can do](/features/#a-safety-net).

**How do I protect my name if my key is compromised?**

**Lock** it. A lock instantly freezes a `@handle` so it can't be moved or have its records changed while you sort things out. Unlocking has its own 7-day timelock, so an attacker who just stole a key can't lock it and immediately walk away with it.

**How do I know a name's records are really that person's?**

Records can be **verified**, per chain. When an owner proves control of an address, it shows as `verified`; an unproven one is shown as `unverified`. Nothing unproven is dressed up as trusted. See [Verified records](/verified/).

**Can I audit ArcNS on chain?**

Yes. Every contract is deployed on Arc testnet with its address and bytecode hash recorded in `contracts/deployments/5042002.json` in the repository; the [Contracts](/contracts/) page is generated from that file and links each address to the explorer. See [Trust & transparency](/trust/#you-can-audit-it-yourself).

**Do I have to tokenize my handle?**

No — it's optional and most people never do. Tokenizing turns a `@handle` into a fully transferable, standard ERC-721 and carries a separate one-time fee, but it's a **one-way step**: it permanently disables the on-chain recovery option for that handle. Only do it if you specifically want handle-as-collectible transferability. See [Fees](/pricing/#optional-tokenizing-a-handle).

## Marketplace [#marketplace]

**How do I buy or sell a name?**

You can't yet through the app. The built-in marketplace (`ArcNSMarket`: fixed-price listings, escrowed offers, English auctions with anti-snipe protection) is deployed and configured on Arc testnet, with sales fees already flowing to the treasury — but the app's `/marketplace` page is still behind a feature flag that hasn't been switched on. Until it ships, a name moves only by its owner's explicit transfer. See [What you can do](/features/#not-live-yet).

**What's the marketplace fee?**

A **2%** fee applies when a name sells through `ArcNSMarket`. It's already fixed in the on-chain pricing config, but no sale can happen through the app until the `/marketplace` page ships. If you're just registering and holding your own name, this never touches you — it only applies to sales.

## Agents [#agents]

**Can an AI agent use ArcNS?**

Yes. The [MCP server](/mcp/) at `mcp.arcns.io` resolves names, checks availability, reads agent records and prepares registrations for Claude Code, Cursor or VS Code — no auth for reads, and the write tools return unsigned calls for the agent's own wallet. The [API](/api/) sells reads to agents at $0.001 per call over x402, and `POST /raas/register` registers a name for an agent that has a Circle Gateway balance but no wallet on Arc.

**What is an agent name?**

A name whose records point at an agent: `agent.manifest`, `agent.x402`, `agent.mcp`, `agent.a2a` and `agent.erc8004` text records bind it to the agent's endpoints and ERC-8004 identity, while the payment address stays the on-chain Arc record with its `verified` flag. See [What you can do](/features/#agents).

## `@handle`, `.arc` and `.circle` [#handle-arc-and-circle]

> **Note**
> **These are three namespaces in one protocol, not three separate products.** `@handle` gives you a flat, payment-shaped name; `.arc` and `.circle` give you hierarchical, domain-shaped names with subnames. Many people will want more than one.

**How is @handle different from .arc or .circle?**

They're different *shapes* for different jobs. `@alice` is the handle-shaped namespace — flat, ASCII, soulbound by default, with recovery and locks, built as a payment and identity handle. `alice.arc` (and `alice.circle`) is the domain-shaped namespace — a verbatim ENS registrar, transferable from day one, able to carry subnames like `pay.alice.arc`. Think of it like a social handle versus a domain name.

**Do @alice and alice.arc go to the same place?**

Not automatically — they're separate names in separate registries and can have **different owners**. That's why a well-behaved wallet never silently picks between them: it always shows you which namespace answered before you send, and refuses a mixed shape like `@alice.arc` outright. Treat it as a feature, not friction.

**Why does .arc sometimes show two different answers for the same name?**

Because another project also sells `.arc` and `.circle` names on Arc testnet from its own registry. Every ArcNS `.arc` / `.circle` lookup consults **every pinned registry** for that TLD, and if they disagree the answer is `conflict` (HTTP `409`) — both candidates shown, labelled with their registry, nothing auto-selected. `arc.arc` is a live example. See [Contracts](/contracts/#the-pinned-peer-registry).

**Do I need all three?**

Not necessarily, but they're not mutually exclusive either — owning one doesn't stop you owning the others. `@handle` covers the flat, memorable "pay me at this name" use case; `.arc` / `.circle` cover domain-style, hierarchical naming with subnames.

## Questions [#questions]

Questions: [support@arcns.io](mailto:support@arcns.io).