Ethereum developers announce the arrival of the ERC-8004 standard, a key infrastructure that introduces portable identity and reputation for AI agents, on the mainnet to drive full autonomy in the digital economy.
This week, the Ethereum Foundation confirmed that the ERC-8004 standard is ready for final implementation on the Ethereum mainnet, marking a milestone in the convergence between blockchain technology and artificial intelligence.
After months of joint development between the Foundation's decentralized AI (dAI) team and Consensys, this new standard is presented as the backbone of what experts call the machine economy.
The technical proposal, according to information found on the Foundation's official social media channels, seeks to address one of the sector's most persistent challenges: the lack of a shared registry of truth for non-human entities. The ERC-8004 standard, by enabling discovery and portable reputation management, facilitates autonomous interaction between AI agents across diverse organizations, ensuring their verifiable credibility in any environment. With this move, Ethereum not only updates its code but also positions itself as the settlement and security platform for a global market of artificial intelligence services that operates without traditional intermediaries.
Trade Ethereum on Bit2Me todayA digital passport for machine autonomy on blockchain
At the heart of the ERC-8004 standard lies an architecture that redefines how artificial intelligence interacts in decentralized environments. This model is built on three essential pillars: identity, reputation y validation, elements that work together to give autonomy and traceability to each digital agent.
The developers of the Foundation they explained In traditional systems, an AI typically relies on a centralized API or a company-controlled account to function. However, ERC-8004 will completely change this by granting each agent its own identity within the blockchain. This identity is represented by an ERC-721 NFT that acts as a digital passport, storing data about the agent's capabilities, credentials, and endpoints.
Thanks to this unique and verifiable identity, machines can be instantly recognized by other agents or smart contracts without intermediaries. The Ethereum network, with its decentralized and secure structure, aims to provide the ideal environment for this information to be permanent and accessible from anywhere in the world.
Furthermore, the new standard also integrates agent reputation directly into the blockchain. This way, every successful action, every fulfilled contract, and every completed task will be recorded in their public history, creating a trust system based on immutable evidence. Thus, both people and other artificial intelligences can assess an agent's reliability not by relying on external statements, but rather on a verifiable, real-time record.
Buy Ethereum, the AI agent platformERC-8004 and x402 lay the foundation for the new digital economy on Ethereum
The adoption of the ERC-8004 standard makes more sense when viewed alongside the x402 protocolTogether, they form a duo that redefines the infrastructure of autonomous commerce. While ERC-8004 focuses on identifying the nature and level of trustworthiness of an artificial intelligence, x402 facilitates how it executes transactions. Together, they create a technological foundation that allows digital agents to operate autonomously and securely.
In general, the x402 protocol introduces the ability to make native micropayments on the internet using stablecoins, an advancement that eliminates intermediaries such as card processors or centralized payment systems. With this, the network not only simplifies transactions but also paves the way for an economy where machines actively participate as buyers, providers, and contractors of digital services.
Several experts in the digital ecosystem have described this integration as the starting point for a truly functional machine economy. In this economy, AI agents will be able to acquire data, rent computing power, or access services from other systems without human intervention. Ethereum is thus establishing itself as the public ledger where these interactions can be verified and scaled transparently.
According to the Foundation's engineers, humans trust each other through social agreements, but autonomous agents need technical structures that guarantee zero trust, and blockchain offers precisely that environment, where rules are followed automatically and without the need for intermediaries.
This evolution promises a significant reduction in operating costs and the opening of new digital markets. Therefore, they anticipate that, as the infrastructure becomes more established, machine-to-machine commerce will cease to be a futuristic idea and become a reality with the potential to transform the global digital economy.
Enter the machine economy with ETHPaving the way for a generation of intelligent agents
The deployment of the ERC-8004 standard on the Ethereum mainnet will mark a key moment in the evolution of AI-based systems within the blockchain ecosystem.
Currently, more and more projects are adapting their infrastructures to integrate with this new specification, anticipating a wave of innovation across various sectors. Agent orchestration platforms and decentralized service marketplaces appear to be the first to benefit from this advancement, as they will be able to operate with more secure, auditable, and autonomous structures.
Furthermore, in the field of decentralized finance, ERC-8004 will enable the development of trading bots with verified identities capable of transparently managing portfolios. This feature is key to opening the door to an environment where trust is based on verifiable lines of code and the traceability of transactions becomes the norm rather than a promise.
But beyond DeFi, other sectors are also beginning to explore the possibilities of the machine economy. From prediction markets to automated care systems, many projects are finding in this standard a reliable foundation for authenticating transactions and sharing value across open networks.
Finally, Ethereum's neutrality solidifies as a structural advantage by offering a platform free from dependencies on external providers. Unlike closed ecosystems dominated by large corporations, agents powered by ERC-8004 operate with greater autonomy, censorship resistance, and cross-platform compatibility.
The community is eagerly anticipating the first production deployments planned for February, a month that could mark the beginning of a new stage in the convergence between blockchain and artificial intelligence.
Certificate
Blockchain Course
Basic levelTake this course where we explain blockchain in a clear, simple and concise way so that you have a very clear idea of what this new technology consists of.
