Name Lifecycle
A ZNS name moves through a small state machine driven by memo actions.
States
| State | What it means |
|---|---|
| Available | Not registered. Anyone can claim. |
| Registered | Owned, not for sale. |
| Listed | Owned and listed on the marketplace. Anyone can buy. |
Released names return to Available and are indistinguishable from never-claimed names.
Transitions
CLAIM registers an available name to an address. Costs ZEC per the current pricing tiers.
UPDATE rewrites which address the name resolves to. Nonce must advance.
LIST puts a registered name on the marketplace at a seller-chosen price. Creates a listing with its own signature; the registration itself is unchanged.
DELIST removes the listing without changing the registration.
BUY transfers ownership atomically. Payment must cover the listing price. Nonce resets to 0, invalidating any signed memos from the previous owner.
RELEASE permanently deletes the registration. Irreversible.
For wire format, admission rules, and signature pre-images, see Memo Format.
Nonce
Every management action (UPDATE, LIST, DELIST, RELEASE) must carry a nonce strictly greater than the current value. CLAIM sets nonce to 0; BUY resets it to 0 for the new owner.
Safe pattern: call resolve(name), read nonce, submit with nonce + 1.