Ethereum preps ERC-8004 for mainnet to help AI agents prove identity and reputation

If AI agents are going to run errands that involve real money, they need a way to introduce themselves. Right now, most trust still comes from the platform you already know. Outside that walled garden, an agent can be hard to judge.

Ethereum developers believe ERC-8004 is a step toward fixing that. The smart contract standard is expected to reach Ethereum mainnet this week, after Ethereum teased the launch in a Jan. 27 post on X. Community chatter suggests the rollout could happen as early as Thursday, Jan. 29.

ERC-8004 introduces on chain registries that can assign an agent an identity record, track reputation over time, and support independent verification for higher-stakes interactions. Instead of being tied to a single app, an agent could carry proof of who it is, what it has done, and how others have rated it.

The design also tries to avoid turning every interaction into an expensive on chain event. ERC-8004 treats Ethereum as a neutral reference point for trust and accountability, while pushing most computation and communication off chain to keep costs manageable. In practice, the chain stores the credentials and reputation breadcrumbs, while the heavy lifting stays elsewhere.

Timing matters. AI agents are moving from experiments to tools that can request data, trigger transactions, and make automated choices on a users behalf. ERC-8004 was submitted in August 2025 and formally presented in October by contributors tied to the Ethereum Foundation and ecosystem partners, and supporters see it as a way to extend Ethereum beyond finance into AI infrastructure.

A successful mainnet launch would not instantly create an agent economy. Developers still need to adopt the registries and build products around them. But if agents are going to cooperate across companies and protocols, a shared trust layer could end up being as important as the messaging layer.