Ethereum’s ERC-8004 aims to put identity and trust behind AI agents

Markets Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Ethereum’s ERC-8004 aims to put identity and trust behind AI agents A new Ethereum standard seeks to give AI agents portable identities and reputations, letting them interact across companies and chains without relying on centralized gatekeepers. By Shaurya Malwa Updated Jan 28, 2026, 7:30 a.m. Published Jan 28, 2026, 7:19 a.m. Make us preferred on Google Ethereum developers are preparing to roll out ERC-8004, a new standard designed to help software agents find each other, prove who they are, and decide who to trust when they operate across different systems. The proposal introduces a simple idea. If AI agents are going to transact, coordinate and execute tasks autonomously, they need persistent identities and a shared way to build credibility — much like users, wallets or smart contracts do today. STORY CONTINUES BELOW Don't miss another story. Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today . See all newsletters Sign me up By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms & conditions and privacy policy . It comes as large companies race to deploy AI agents internally, most systems still rely on closed identity lists, API keys or bilateral trust agreements. That works inside a firm, but breaks down once agents need to coordinate across vendors, chains or jurisdictions. ERC-8004 defines three lightweight registries that can live on Ethereum mainnet or layer-2 networks. ERC-8004 is going live on mainnet soon. By enabling discovery and portable reputation, ERC-8004 allows AI agents to interact across organizations ensuring credibility travels everywhere. This unlocks a global market where AI services can interoperate without gatekeepers. https://t.co/Yrl0rvnSxj — Ethereum (@ethereum) January 27, 2026 The first is an identity registry, which assigns each agent a unique on-chain identifier using an ERC-721-style token. That identifier points to a registration file describing what the agent does, how to reach it and which protocols it supports. Ownership of the identifier can be transferred, delegated or updated, giving agents portable, censorship-resistant identities. The second is a reputation registry, where clients — human or machine — can submit structured feedback about an agent’s performance. The registry stores raw signals on-chain, while allowing more complex scoring and filtering to happen off-chain. The goal isn’t to rank agents directly but to make reputation data public and reusable across applications. The third is a validation registry, which lets agents request independent checks of their work. Validators could include staked services, machine learning proofs, trusted hardware or other verification systems. These results are stored on the blockchain so other users can see what was checked and by whom. Developers involved in the proposal frame it as infrastructure rather than a marketplace. ERC-8004 doesn’t handle payments, pricing or business models. Instead, it provides common rails for discovery and trust, leaving monetization to higher-level protocols. If adopted, the standard could push Ethereum further into a role as neutral infrastructure — not just for financial contracts, but for coordinating autonomous software agents in an increasingly fragmented AI ecosystem. The network's ether ETH $ 3,011.54 trades just over $3,000 in Asian afternoon hours Wednesday, up nearly 3% in the past 24 hours. 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