Auth Code (EPP Code, Transfer Code)
A short per-domain secret a registrar issues to authorize moving a domain to another registrar, also called an EPP code or transfer code.
- glossary
An auth code — also called an EPP code, AuthInfo code, or transfer code — is a short shared secret that a registrar issues for a specific domain to authorize a cross-registrar transfer. EPP (Extensible Provisioning Protocol) is the standard underlying registry protocol; the auth code is the per-domain credential within it. To transfer a domain from one registrar to another, the gaining registrar must present a valid auth code obtained by the registrant from the losing registrar. The code is usually visible inside the registrar's control panel, sometimes hidden behind a "Transfer Out" or "Get EPP Code" button. For tokenized domains, the on-chain ownership transfer does not require an auth code — the NFT transfer is atomic on-chain. Auth codes are only relevant when moving a domain between registrars in the traditional DNS world.
Related keywords
- auth code
- EPP code
- transfer code
- domain transfer
- authorization code
- AuthInfo code
Contributors
Namefi is a collective of engineers, designers, and operators who obsess over building tools that make managing your onchain domain names effortless.
Victor Zhou is a technology founder and standards editor focused on digital identity and trust. He founded Namefi, edits Ethereum Improvement Proposals, and previously led smart-contract architecture work at Google Labs.
His work sits at the intersection of naming, ownership, and the systems people use to establish identity online. That perspective makes him especially interested in the way names move between personal meaning, public recognition, and digital infrastructure.
For Namefi, Victor edits and writes about domains as durable digital identity: how names become ownable onchain assets, how tokenization changes custody and trust, and what naming can learn from the systems people use to establish identity online.