What Is ERC-8004, Which Will Be Launched on the Ethereum Mainnet?

ERC-8004 is a newly proposed Ethereum standard designed to solve one of the biggest challenges in on-chain and off-chain automation: how to discover, trust, and interact with autonomous agents without relying on centralized intermediaries. 

As artificial intelligence agents, bots, and automated services become more prevalent in crypto and Web3, ERC-8004 aims to provide a trust framework that works across organizations, protocols, and blockchains.

Proposed as a Draft Standards Track ERC, ERC-8004 introduces a modular system that allows agents to establish identity, earn reputation, and prove correctness through validation. 

While it has not yet been finalized, the proposal is widely viewed as a foundational building block for open agent economies on Ethereum and its Layer 2 networks.

Key Takeaways

• ERC-8004 introduces a trustless framework for discovering and interacting with autonomous agents on Ethereum.
• The proposal relies on three registries: identity, reputation, and validation.
• ERC-8004 is designed to be chain-agnostic and compatible with Ethereum mainnet and L2s.

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What Is ERC-8004

ERC-8004, titled Trustless Agents, is an Ethereum Improvement Proposal that defines how agents can be registered, evaluated, and validated on-chain without requiring pre-existing trust relationships.

Ethereum Improvement Proposals are standards that shape how applications and protocols interact on Ethereum. ERC-8004 focuses on agents, which can be AI systems, automated trading bots, service providers, or any programmatic actor that performs tasks on behalf of users.

The core idea behind ERC-8004 is simple. If agents are going to operate autonomously and interact with users or other agents, there must be a way to identify them, assess their reliability, and verify their outputs. ERC-8004 provides a standardized way to do this using Ethereum smart contracts.

Read Also: Understanding the Ethereum Blockchain

Why ERC-8004 Was Created

Modern agent frameworks such as Model Context Protocol and Agent to Agent messaging handle communication, task execution, and orchestration. However, they do not solve agent discovery and trust in open environments.

Without a trust framework, users have no reliable way to know whether an agent is legitimate, reputable, or secure. ERC-8004 addresses this gap by enabling trust models that scale from low risk tasks to high value, high risk operations.

For example, a low value task like ordering food may only require basic reputation checks. A high risk task like financial trading or medical diagnostics may require cryptographic validation or independent verification.

How ERC-8004 Works

ERC-8004 is built around three lightweight registries that work together to form a trust system. These registries can be deployed on Ethereum mainnet or on any Layer 2 network.

Each registry has a specific responsibility and can be used independently or together depending on the use case.

Identity Registry Explained

The Identity Registry gives every agent a unique, portable on-chain identity. It is implemented using the ERC-721 NFT standard with URI storage extensions.

Each agent is represented by an NFT, where ownership of the NFT defines ownership of the agent. The token metadata points to an agent registration file that describes the agent’s capabilities, endpoints, and supported trust models.

This design makes agents discoverable using standard NFT tooling while remaining censorship resistant and transferable. An agent can change ownership, delegate management, or update its metadata without breaking its identity.

The agent registration file can include web endpoints, AI interfaces, blockchain addresses, ENS names, and decentralized identifiers. This allows agents to operate across multiple ecosystems while maintaining a single on-chain identity.

Reputation Registry Explained

The Reputation Registry allows users and other agents to submit feedback about an agent’s performance. Feedback is stored on-chain in a standardized format while allowing richer data to be stored off-chain using systems like IPFS.

Reputation signals are flexible. They can represent quality scores, uptime percentages, response times, success rates, or financial performance. The protocol does not enforce a single scoring model, allowing developers to experiment with different reputation algorithms.

Importantly, reputation aggregation can happen both on-chain and off-chain. On-chain data enables composability with smart contracts, while off-chain aggregation allows for advanced analytics, filtering, and Sybil resistance.

This approach encourages an ecosystem of reputation providers, auditors, and insurance services built on top of ERC-8004.

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Validation Registry Explained

The Validation Registry is designed for higher trust use cases where reputation alone is not enough. It allows agents to request independent verification of their work from validators.

Validators can be smart contracts or off-chain systems that re-execute tasks, verify proofs, or attest to correctness using technologies such as zero knowledge machine learning, trusted execution environments, or stake-based revalidation.

Validation results are recorded on-chain and can be queried by anyone. This creates an auditable trail of verification that other contracts and applications can rely on.

Validation responses are flexible and can support binary outcomes or graded scores depending on the validator’s logic.

Trust Models Supported by ERC-8004

ERC-8004 does not enforce a single trust mechanism. Instead, it allows agents to advertise which trust models they support.

These models include reputation based trust using user feedback, crypto economic validation using staking and re-execution, cryptographic verification through zero knowledge proofs, and hardware based attestation using trusted execution environments.

This modular design ensures that security can scale with the value at risk. Developers can choose the trust model that best fits their application without being locked into a single approach.

Will ERC-8004 Be Deployed on the Ethereum Mainnet

ERC-8004 is currently in draft status and has not yet been finalized. However, the proposal is explicitly designed to be deployable on Ethereum mainnet as well as Layer 2 networks.

The registries are intended to be singletons per chain, meaning one deployment per network that all applications can share. Agents can also register on multiple chains if needed, while maintaining consistent identity references.

If adopted, ERC-8004 could become a core primitive for decentralized agent ecosystems across Ethereum.

Why ERC-8004 Matters for Ethereum

ERC-8004 represents a shift toward a more autonomous and agent driven blockchain ecosystem. As AI agents become more capable, the need for trustless coordination grows.

By standardizing identity, reputation, and validation, ERC-8004 reduces fragmentation and lowers the barrier for developers building agent based applications. It also increases transparency and accountability for agents operating in public environments.

For Ethereum, this aligns with its broader goal of being a neutral settlement layer for complex economic activity.

Final Thoughts

ERC-8004 is an ambitious proposal that tackles a fundamental problem in decentralized automation. Trust is hard to establish in open systems, especially when agents operate across organizational and technical boundaries.

By introducing modular registries for identity, reputation, and validation, ERC-8004 lays the groundwork for open agent economies that do not rely on centralized platforms. 

While still in draft form, its design reflects growing demand for trustless coordination between humans, agents, and smart contracts.

If finalized and adopted, ERC-8004 could play a key role in shaping how AI agents and autonomous services interact on Ethereum in the years ahead.

Read Also: Ethereum's Pectra Upgrade: What You Need to Know

FAQs

What is ERC-8004

ERC-8004 is an Ethereum proposal that defines a standard for trustless agent discovery, reputation, and validation.

How does ERC-8004 work

It uses three registries on-chain to manage agent identity, reputation feedback, and independent validation.

Is ERC-8004 live on Ethereum mainnet

No, ERC-8004 is currently in draft status and has not yet been deployed.

Who benefits from ERC-8004

Developers building AI agents, automated services, and decentralized applications that require trust and verification.

Does ERC-8004 replace existing agent protocols

No, it complements protocols like MCP and Agent to Agent messaging by adding discovery and trust layers.

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