Registration & The ITL Address Record: INS domains are leased for a specific duration. Upon successfully registering a name, the system automatically configures the ITL Address Record to point to your current registering wallet. This means the name is immediately functional and ready to route funds. You only need to manually update this record within the Resolver if you wish to change the receiving destination to a different InterLink wallet address.

Roles & Permissions (Owner vs. Manager): To provide maximum security, INS separates the ownership of a name from its day-to-day management.

The Owner: The wallet that holds the ultimate rights to the domain. The Owner can transfer the name to another person, renew the lease, and assign the Manager.
The Manager: The wallet authorized to update the domain's records (e.g., changing the ITL Address Record or creating subnames). By default, the Owner is also the Manager. However, for security, users can separate these roles (e.g., keeping the Owner role in a secure wallet while using another wallet as the Manager).

Renewal & Grace Period: Users must extend their lease before the expiration date to maintain ownership. If a domain expires, it enters a Grace Period (90 days). During this window, the name remains fully functional and continues to resolve to the configured address. While no one else can register or steal the name during this period, anyone can still step in and pay to renew it on behalf of the original Owner.

Post-Expiration & Premium Fee: If the Grace Period ends without a renewal, the name is released for public registration. However, the name will continue to resolve to the old address until a new owner registers it and explicitly overwrites the records. To prevent sniper bots from instantly snatching high-value names upon release, a Premium Fee is applied. This is a temporary, exponentially decaying surcharge that starts very high and gradually decreases to the standard base price over a set number of days (21 days).

Smart Contract Architecture: The protocol is governed by two main components:

The Registry: The master ledger tracking the Owner, Manager, lease status, and expiration of every domain.
The Resolver: The execution engine that translates the .itl name into the configured ITL Address Record or actionable data.
Subnames: Primary domain owners can create subnames (e.g., pay.alice.itl). These subnames are configured as simple registry records controlled by the parent domain Manager.