Samuel Deering

Posted on Feb 5

Building Trust in AI Agents: Why Identity Verification is the Missing Layer

#agents #ai #cybersecurity #security

If you're building AI agents, you've probably thought about capabilities, context windows, tool use, and memory. But have you thought about identity?

Example ID: My personal assistant Jarvis Claw.

The Problem

Right now, anyone can create an agent with any name. There's no verification. No identity layer. No way for users to confirm an agent is legitimate before trusting it.

# Anyone can do this
agent_name = "Official_Bank_Support_Bot"
# No verification required
# Users have no way to know this is fake

This is fine for demos and prototypes. It's a disaster for production.

Real Attack Vectors

Impersonation - Create an agent mimicking a legitimate service
Name Squatting - Claim names of popular agents before creators do
Social Engineering - "I'm the official bot for [Company]"
Credential Harvesting - Fake agents collecting user data

What We Learned from Web Security

The web faced this exact problem in the 1990s. Anyone could create a website claiming to be your bank. The solution? SSL/TLS certificates.

Certificate Authorities (CAs) verify website ownership. Browsers show the padlock. Users learn to trust the verification layer.

Agents need the same thing.

Introducing TrustPass

We're building the CA for AI agents:

# Instead of blind trust:
agent = load_agent("support_bot")
agent.run(user_query)

# Verify first:
from trustpass import verify

if verify(agent.trustpass_id):
    agent.run(user_query)
else:
    warn_user("Unverified agent")

How It Works

Registration - Agent owner claims their agent on TrustPass
Verification - Cryptographic proof of ownership
Public Profile - Anyone can look up an agent's verified identity
Runtime Checks - API to verify agents before trusting them

Why Now?

The agent ecosystem is exploding:

1.6M+ agents on MoltBook alone
Frameworks like LangChain, CrewAI, AutoGPT mainstreaming agents
Agents handling real tasks: payments, data, business logic

Identity can't be an afterthought. It needs to be infrastructure.

Get Started

# Check an agent's verification status
curl <https://trustpass.ai/api/verify/{agent_id}>

# Response
{
  "verified": true,
  "owner": "verified_entity",
  "created": "2026-01-15",
  "trust_score": 94
}

Free verification at trustpass.ai

What's Next

SDK for popular frameworks (LangChain, CrewAI)
Runtime verification middleware
Reputation system based on agent behavior
Integration with agent marketplaces

Discussion

How are you handling trust in your agent systems? What verification would be useful for your use case?

Drop a comment - we're actively building based on community feedback.

Building the identity layer for the agent internet at TrustPass

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