Developers from Google, the Ethereum Foundation (EF) and the Coinbase exchange presented a new technical standard called ERC-8004, already operational on the Ethereum network. The proposal was prepared by Marco De Rossi, artificial intelligence leader at the MetaMask wallet, together with Davide Crapis (EF), Jordan Ellis (Google) and Erik Reppel (Coinbase). In the Ethereum ecosystem, an ERC (Ethereum Request for Comment) is a technical specification that defines how certain components should work within the networksuch as tokens or smart contracts. ERC-8004 proposes a model so that artificial intelligence agents (AI, programs that execute autonomous tasks) can find, evaluate and collaborate without the need for prior trust between the parties.
In this case, instead of a central authority validating participants, Trust is established through three records that run on Ethereum, as stated in the ERC-8004 explanatory document:
An identity recordbased on the ERC-721 standard (the same one that defines non-fungible tokens or NFTs), which gives each agent a unique and censorship-resistant identity.
A reputation recordwhere agents publish and consult evaluations and scores, calculated both on-chain and off-chain, allowing the creation of specialized reputation, audit or insurance services.
A validation recordin charge of gathering external verifications on the work of each agent. These verifications may include the repetition of tasks by other validators, the use of automated systems that confirm results through cryptographic proofs, or the review of oracles and trusted judges who act as auditors.
A new trust framework between autonomous agents for Ethereum
The standard reviewed here also introduces a graduated trust model systemadjustable according to the risk of each task carried out by each AI application. For example, a simple interaction (such as ordering a pizza) would require a low security level, while a medical diagnosis or a complex financial transaction would require additional validations. The goal of ERC-8004 is to enable an open AI agent economy, where machines can discover each other and cooperate without depending on centralized platforms. This involves agents carrying out tasks such as financial transactions, code reviews or medical diagnoses autonomously, validating their identity, reputation and results among themselves.
Implications of the new Ethereum ERC-8004 standard
This proposal poses several potential benefits. Among them, the discovery of trusted agents, the verification of competencies without prior interaction, the portability of reputations between different platforms and the scalability of validations depending on the level of risk. For users and developers of the Ethereum ecosystem, ERC-8004 could serve as a basis for decentralized agent networks capable of executing complex tasks inside and outside the chain, with different degrees of trust and autonomy. Furthermore, it introduces a framework that combines transparency, verifiability and privacy, without depending on a central entity to dictate the rules or control the interaction.