So I was reading about ERC-8004, a new Ethereum standard proposal focused on trustless agents basically a way for on-chain + off-chain bots/AI agents to identify each other, verify actions, and build reputation without needing a centralized “agent platform.”
Not shilling anything just sharing because the idea itself is very relevant if you're building automation, AI agents, or decentralized services.
🧩 What Problem Is It Trying to Solve?
Right now, anyone building agent-based systems in Web3 has to recreate the same stuff:
How to register an agent
How to discover other agents
How to publish capabilities
How to verify that an agent actually did what it claims
How to track reputation
ERC-8004 tries to standardize those primitives instead of everyone building their own mini-ecosystem.
🔨 Key Components (in simple terms)
Identity Registry
Every agent gets an on-chain identity + a pointer to its off-chain metadata (“skills list”).
This means agents can be discovered like packages in a registry.Reputation Hooks
After tasks are done, clients can leave feedback not stored on-chain but linked via on-chain events.
So you get transparency + cheaper storage.Validation Layer (optional & modular)
Depending on task risk:
simple trust → reputation,
higher stakes → staking/slashing,
very high stakes → TEEs or ZK proofs.
Basically a “choose your own trust model.”
🧠 Why Devs Might Care
- Makes agent discovery + interoperability much easier
- Lets you build agent-to-agent interactions without a closed ecosystem
- Flexible trust models depending on use case
- Opens the door to actual agent marketplaces (like “choose your DeFi bot / research agent / game bot”)
- Gives structure to AI + blockchain integrations without being restrictive
⚠️ Stuff to Keep in Mind
- Off-chain metadata still needs integrity guarantees
- Reputation systems are always prone to gaming if not designed well
- Validation layers add cost and complexity
- Adoption will determine usefulness
- Still early the spec is evolving
💬 What I’m Curious About
Anyone here building AI agents or on-chain automation?
Would you actually use a standard like this, or prefer custom infra?
Which trust model seems most practical — reputation, staking, or cryptographic attestation?
If you want to read more, here’s the blog explaining the spec (not super long):
https://oasis.net/blog/erc-8004-trustless-agents
Would love to hear what other devs think is this the kind of standard we need, or is it too early for “agent protocols” on-chain?
Top comments (2)
As a dev, I like that ERC-8004 basically removes the need to rebuild all the agent basics yourself. A shared way to register agents, list capabilities, and choose the right trust model makes things a lot cleaner. Still early, but if enough projects adopt it, this could make agent-to-agent interactions much easier to build.
Super interesting standard! ERC-8004 finally gives agents a common identity & discovery layer without forcing a single trust model. The real unlock is when you pair it with verifiable execution (TEEs/ZK), and that’s where Oasis’ ROFL/Sapphire stack fits in nicely for anyone wanting provable, private agent logic.