Trustless AI Goes Onchain: How ERC-8004 Is Redefining Agent Discovery

ERC-8004, formally titled “Trustless Agents,” is an Ethereum Improvement Proposal introduced in August 2025 to create a decentralized trust infrastructure for autonomous AI agents. Designed to let agents discover, evaluate, and interact with one another without centralized gatekeepers, the proposal went live in reference deployments on Ethereum mainnet in late January 2026.

In plain terms, ERC-8004 answers a simple but critical question: How do machines trust each other on the internet without humans playing referee?

Who Is Behind ERC-8004?

The proposal was authored by Marco De Rossi, Davide Crapis, Jordan Ellis, and Erik Reppel, and published as EIP-8004 in August 2025. The standard builds on existing Ethereum primitives, including EIP-155, EIP-712, and ERC-721, extending them to support machine-native identities and reputations.

It is part of a broader movement to formalize what many are calling the “agent economy” — a world where AI systems transact, negotiate, and perform services autonomously.

What Does ERC-8004 Actually Do?

At its core, ERC-8004 introduces three onchain registries: Identity, Reputation, and Validation.

The Identity Registry mints each agent as an ERC-721 token, assigning it a globally unique identifier. That NFT points to a registration file describing what the agent does, where it operates, and how to contact it. Think of it as a decentralized passport for AI.

The Reputation Registry allows clients — human or machine — to leave structured feedback, including fixed-point scores, tags, and references to off-chain evidence. That feedback is tamper-evident and queryable onchain, enabling composable trust.

The Validation Registry supports third-party verification of high-stakes tasks, allowing validators to respond with scores between 0 and 100 and optionally attach cryptographic proof. For anything serious — financial advice, model outputs, automated trading — this layer adds teeth.

Where Is It Live?

ERC-8004 is EVM-native and deployed on Ethereum and compatible networks. According to 8004scan.io, there are currently 21,562 registered agents across major EVM chains. Some counts are even higher and nearing 30,000. The data from 8004scan.io indicates that the distribution across networks shows clear concentration in a handful of hubs. The popular blockchain explorer, Etherscan, is also indexing agents as well.

Ethereum leads with 11,369 registered agents, followed by Base with 4,379 and Gnosis with 2,679. BNB Smart Chain accounts for 2,317 agents, while mid-tier deployments include Monad with 128, Optimism with 124, Arbitrum with 110, Polygon with 107 and Linea with 101. Avalanche hosts 98 agents, X Layer has 100, and Celo records 20. Smaller footprints appear on Abstract with 19, MegaETH with 4, Taiko with 3, Scroll with 2 and Mantle with 2, while Plasma currently shows no registered agents.

Ethereum remains the gravitational center, but Layer 2 networks such as Base are quickly establishing themselves as agent hubs.

Why Is ERC-8004 Needed?

Existing protocols like MCP and A2A allow agents to advertise capabilities and authenticate with one another. What they do not natively provide is open discovery and portable trust across organizational boundaries.

ERC-8004 fills that gap.

Instead of relying on centralized marketplaces or curated directories, agents can publish capabilities onchain, accumulate reputation signals and optionally request third-party validation. The result is a neutral infrastructure layer where trust becomes programmable.

That neutrality matters. A portable identity and reputation system allows an agent’s track record on Ethereum to follow it to Base or Optimism without starting from scratch.

Use Cases: From DeFi to Creative Tools

As of mid-February 2026, with thousands of agents registered, a great deal of feedback submissions has been recorded. Use cases include crypto market assistants, DeFi guidance bots, narrative-generation tools and automated trading systems.

Some agents support x402-compatible payments, enabling autonomous settlement alongside reputation signals. While payments are technically separate from the standard, the integration potential is clear.

In effect, ERC-8004 is laying the plumbing for machine-to-machine commerce.

Security and Risks

The protocol is not magic. Sybil attacks remain possible, and validator honesty depends on external incentive mechanisms. Onchain hashes ensure data integrity, but they cannot guarantee that advertised services actually work as promised.

That is why the design emphasizes layered trust: lightweight reputation for low-stakes interactions and validation for higher-risk tasks.

It is a framework, not a silver bullet.

The Bigger Picture

To many observers, ERC-8004 represents a convergence of blockchain and AI infrastructure, similar to the popularity Openclaw has witnessed. By standardizing identity, reputation and validation for agents, Ethereum is positioning itself as a settlement and trust layer for autonomous systems.

With tens of thousands of agents already registered across a myriad of EVM chains, the experiment is no longer theoretical. It is live, indexed, and growing.

Whether this becomes the backbone of a multibillion-dollar agent economy or simply an evolutionary stepping stone will depend on adoption, tooling, and community governance. But one thing is clear: ERC-8004 is giving AI agents a blockchain-native résumé — and letting the market, or agentic economy, decide who earns five stars.

FAQ ❓

• What is ERC-8004?
  ERC-8004 is an Ethereum draft standard that creates onchain identity, reputation, and validation registries for autonomous AI agents.
• How many agents are registered under ERC-8004?
  There are 21,562 agents registered across EVM-compatible chains, according to 8004scan.io. Other counts are higher.
• Which chains support ERC-8004?
  Deployments exist on Ethereum and several EVM networks, including Base, BNB Smart Chain, Gnosis, Polygon, Optimism, and others.
• Why does ERC-8004 matter?
  It enables decentralized discovery and programmable trust between AI agents without centralized intermediaries.

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