EPP
The standard protocol registrars use to register and manage domains with a registry.
- glossary
EPP (Extensible Provisioning Protocol) is the XML-based command protocol defined in RFC 5730 that governs how a registrar communicates with a registry to create, update, transfer, or delete domain registrations. Every time a registrar registers a new name, renews it, or initiates a transfer, it sends an EPP command over a secure TCP session to the registry's EPP server and receives a structured response confirming success or reporting an error. The protocol also carries the auth-code used to authorize outbound transfers and surfaces the EPP status codes — such as clientTransferProhibited or serverHold — that describe a domain's current state. Because EPP is tightly controlled, access is limited to accredited registrars; end users never interact with it directly.
Related keywords
- EPP
- Extensible Provisioning Protocol
- domain management
- registry protocol
- RFC 5730
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.