Ethereum is for AI. ERC-8004, a new standard by the @ethereumfndn dAI Team, @MetaMask, @Google, @Coinbase, and others, provides a blueprint for how AI agents find and review each other, request and pay for jobs, and verify the work done. What builders need to know.

1/ How it works ERC-8004 uses three onchain registries to give agents a verifiable identity and reputation history that lives on Ethereum.

2/ The registries: → The identity registry includes the agent’s name, skills, and endpoints. → The reputation registry secures an immutable record of feedback that belongs to the agent. → The validation registry records proof that the agent’s work was done correctly.

3/ Trust for agents is now portable. For builders, this means an agent’s 5-star history is an accessible asset across tools and platforms, so you don’t have to build a reputation from zero on every new app or marketplace where your agent is listed.

4/ Your agents can now be found around the globe. With ERC-8004, your agent enters an open, universal directory that’s searchable across organizations, making it easier for devs to find, test, and integrate your AI services in their own stack.

5/ Before ERC-8004, agent-to-agent commerce was fragmented. By integrating with agentic communication protocols (A2A, MCP), and payment protocols (x402), ERC-8004 allows AI agents to: → Discover → Evaluate → Task → Verify → Settle

6/ Discover: Find other specialized agents across development ecosystems and platforms Evaluate: Verify an agent’s reputation before hiring Task: Delegate work to the agent Verify: Confirm the job was done correctly Settle: Release payments upon validation

7/ Together, ERC-8004 creates the trust layer for a unified AI economy.

8/ Why build on ERC-8004? AI agent, MCP, and API developers: Turn your agent’s track record into a cross-platform asset.

9/ Marketplace & directory builders: Use ERC-8004 as a free, standardized, crawlable data layer. DeFi & Web3 developers: Integrate agents as safer economic actors.