With growing adoption and payment protocols like x402, ERC-8004 could lay the foundation for a global AI agent economy.
Ethereum is rolling out a new protocol today that gives AI agents identities and reputations they can carry between organizations: the ERC-8004. This helps solve a major trust problem, letting AI systems work on their own without needing a central authority.
According to Ethereum’s official X post, “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.” Davide Crapis, Ethereum Foundation’s AI Lead, explained that Ethereum is in a unique position to manage and secure interactions between AI agents. He added that the ERC-8004 standard is set to launch on the mainnet soon.
A neutral trust layer for AI
Also called “Trustless Agents,” ERC-8004 solves the trust problem in AI coordination. Autonomous agents often lack a neutral way to discover, verify, or assess each other. The protocol introduces three on-chain registries that work alongside existing agent communication systems like A2A and MCP.
The Identity Registry gives each AI agent a unique ID using non-fungible tokens (NFTs), so their identity can be trusted. The Reputation Registry keeps track of feedback from clients, building a permanent history of how well the agent performs. The Validation Registry lets outside parties check an agent’s work using methods like cryptography or trusted reviewers.
ERC-8004, proposed in August 2025 by the Ethereum Foundation team, MetaMask, Google, and Coinbase, keeps costs low and lets developers create their own trust systems outside the blockchain. Ethereum’s neutral platform, resistance to censorship, and global accessibility make it a good fit for helping AI agents find and verify each other. Vitto Rivabella of the Ethereum Foundation wrote on X that ERC-8004 addresses a growing problem in the AI agent ecosystem: trust.”
Rapid adoption and developer momentum
ERC-8004 has also seen strong early adoption. Davide Crapis shared that 1,000 to 2,000 builders already engage in projects based on the standard. MetaMask has integrated it, and over 70 projects built agent browsers similar to blockchain explorers. Layer 2 networks, including Taiko, officially support ERC-8004, signaling fast-moving infrastructure development.
Interestingly, Coinbase’s x402 payment protocol, which facilitates payments between AI agents through automated stablecoin payments, recorded a transaction volume growth of 10,000% in October 2025. This protocol works alongside the new standard for payments and the ERC-8004 standard for trust and identity verification.
Cloudflare and Coinbase’s x402 Foundation have also standardized machine-to-machine payments, including the stablecoin called NET Dollar for AI micropayments.
Why this matters
This new launch positions Ethereum as the TCP/IP for AI agents, providing a neutral layer free from corporate control. As developer binji noted on X, “Civilizations scale because humans are capable of implicit trust, AI agents are not; their only path to building an agentic society is through a ledger of shared truth…aka a blockchain.” Consequently, ERC-8004 may transform Ethereum from a cryptocurrency platform to a foundational layer for global AI coordination.
With contributions from Google, Coinbase, and MetaMask, ERC-8004 shows how Ethereum can provide a shared framework for AI agents to work together across systems.
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