What Is ERC-8004? Ethereum’s New Agent Standard Powers Thousands of Onchain AI Identities

Ethereum’s newest draft normal, ERC-8004, is popping synthetic intelligence (AI) brokers into moveable, reputation-backed financial actors throughout EVM chains — and 21,562 of them are already dwell.

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

ERC-8004, formally titled “Trustless Brokers,” is an Ethereum Enchancment Proposal launched in August 2025 to create a decentralized belief infrastructure for autonomous AI brokers. Designed to let brokers uncover, consider, and work together with each other with out centralized gatekeepers, the proposal went dwell in reference deployments on Ethereum mainnet in late January 2026.

In plain phrases, ERC-8004 solutions a easy however essential query: How do machines belief one another on the web with out people enjoying referee?

Who Is Behind ERC-8004?

The proposal was authored by Marco De Rossi, Davide Crapis, Jordan Ellis, and Erik Reppel, and revealed as EIP-8004 in August 2025. The usual builds on current Ethereum primitives, together with EIP-155, EIP-712, and ERC-721, extending them to help machine-native identities and reputations.

It’s a part of a broader motion to formalize what many are calling the “agent economic system” — a world the place AI methods transact, negotiate, and carry out companies autonomously.

What Does ERC-8004 Truly Do?

At its core, ERC-8004 introduces three onchain registries: Id, Repute, and Validation.

The Id Registry mints every agent as an ERC-721 token, assigning it a globally distinctive identifier. That NFT factors to a registration file describing what the agent does, the place it operates, and easy methods to contact it. Consider it as a decentralized passport for AI.

The Repute Registry permits shoppers — human or machine — to depart structured suggestions, together with fixed-point scores, tags, and references to off-chain proof. That suggestions is tamper-evident and queryable onchain, enabling composable belief.

The Validation Registry helps third-party verification of high-stakes duties, permitting validators to reply with scores between 0 and 100 and optionally connect cryptographic proof. For something severe — monetary recommendation, mannequin outputs, automated buying and selling — this layer provides enamel.

The place Is It Reside?

ERC-8004 is EVM-native and deployed on Ethereum and suitable networks. In response to 8004scan.io, there are at the moment 21,562 registered brokers throughout main EVM chains. Some counts are even greater and nearing 30,000. The information from 8004scan.io signifies that the distribution throughout networks reveals clear focus in a handful of hubs. The favored blockchain explorer, Etherscan, can be indexing brokers as properly.

Ethereum leads with 11,369 registered brokers, adopted by Base with 4,379 and Gnosis with 2,679. $BNB Good Chain accounts for two,317 brokers, whereas mid-tier deployments embody Monad with 128, Optimism with 124, Arbitrum with 110, Polygon with 107 and Linea with 101. Avalanche hosts 98 brokers, X Layer has 100, and Celo information 20. Smaller footprints seem on Summary with 19, MegaETH with 4, Taiko with 3, Scroll with 2 and Mantle with 2, whereas Plasma at the moment reveals no registered brokers.

Ethereum stays the gravitational heart, however Layer 2 networks similar to Base are shortly establishing themselves as agent hubs.

Why Is ERC-8004 Wanted?

Current protocols like MCP and A2A permit brokers to promote capabilities and authenticate with each other. What they don’t natively present is open discovery and moveable belief throughout organizational boundaries.

ERC-8004 fills that hole.

As a substitute of counting on centralized marketplaces or curated directories, brokers can publish capabilities onchain, accumulate popularity indicators and optionally request third-party validation. The result’s a impartial infrastructure layer the place belief turns into programmable.

That neutrality issues. A transportable id and popularity system permits an agent’s monitor file on Ethereum to comply with it to Base or Optimism with out ranging from scratch.

Use Circumstances: From DeFi to Artistic Instruments

As of mid-February 2026, with hundreds of brokers registered, quite a lot of suggestions submissions has been recorded. Use circumstances embody crypto market assistants, DeFi steering bots, narrative-generation instruments and automatic buying and selling methods.

Some brokers help x402-compatible funds, enabling autonomous settlement alongside popularity indicators. Whereas funds are technically separate from the usual, the combination potential is obvious.

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

Safety and Dangers

The protocol is just not magic. Sybil assaults stay doable, and validator honesty is determined by exterior incentive mechanisms. Onchain hashes guarantee information integrity, however they can’t assure that marketed companies truly work as promised.

That’s the reason the design emphasizes layered belief: light-weight popularity for low-stakes interactions and validation for higher-risk duties.

It’s a framework, not a silver bullet.

The Greater Image

To many observers, ERC-8004 represents a convergence of blockchain and AI infrastructure, just like the recognition Openclaw has witnessed. By standardizing id, popularity and validation for brokers, Ethereum is positioning itself as a settlement and belief layer for autonomous methods.

With tens of hundreds of brokers already registered throughout a myriad of EVM chains, the experiment is not theoretical. It’s dwell, listed, and rising.

Whether or not this turns into the spine of a multibillion-dollar agent economic system or just an evolutionary stepping stone will rely on adoption, tooling, and neighborhood governance. However one factor is obvious: ERC-8004 is giving AI brokers a blockchain-native résumé — and letting the market, or agentic economic system, resolve who earns 5 stars.

FAQ ❓

• What’s ERC-8004?
  ERC-8004 is an Ethereum draft normal that creates onchain id, popularity, and validation registries for autonomous AI brokers.
• What number of brokers are registered below ERC-8004?
  There are 21,562 brokers registered throughout EVM-compatible chains, based on 8004scan.io. Different counts are greater.
• Which chains help ERC-8004?
  Deployments exist on Ethereum and several other EVM networks, together with Base, $BNB Good Chain, Gnosis, Polygon, Optimism, and others.
• Why does ERC-8004 matter?
  It permits decentralized discovery and programmable belief between AI brokers with out centralized intermediaries.