# What is ERC-8004 (Trustless Agents)?
ERC-8004 is a draft standard proposal titled “Trustless Agents,” designed to introduce a trust layer for agent-to-agent (A2A) protocols on Ethereum and other EVM-compatible chains or Layer-2 solutions. This trust layer enables participants, known as agents, to discover, trust, and interact across organizational boundaries without requiring pre-existing trust relationships.
The standard introduces three lightweight on-chain registries to facilitate this trust infrastructure:
1. **Identity Registry** — Registers and resolves agents’ identities, domain names, and addresses.
2. **Reputation Registry** — Records and retrieves feedback between agents, enabling reputation tracking.
3. **Validation Registry** — Initiates and records task validations, which can be enforced through staking (cryptoeconomic validation), cryptographic proofs, or Trusted Execution Environments (TEE).
Importantly, ERC-8004 leaves many application-specific and off-chain components open for implementation by different applications. The standard focuses on providing the foundational infrastructure and interfaces, while allowing flexibility in scoring, rewarding, penalizing, feedback handling, and validation protocol details.
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# Motivation: Why ERC-8004?
Current A2A protocols offer features such as authentication, skill advertising, and task lifecycle management. However, these functionalities are typically confined within organizational boundaries and assume existing trust among parties. ERC-8004 aims to extend the agent ecosystem across organizations and domains, enabling an agent in one organization to be discovered, trusted, and selected to complete tasks in another.
Building trust usually incurs costs, including verification, reputation management, deposits, guarantees, or third-party attestations. ERC-8004 seeks to reduce these costs by providing standardized interfaces and infrastructure, fostering seamless cross-domain trust and collaboration.
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# Understanding the Core Keywords: ERC-8004, AgentFi, A2A, EVM
– **ERC-8004**: The emerging Ethereum standard for trustless agent interactions, enabling decentralized trust layers for A2A protocols.
– **AgentFi**: A conceptual or practical framework that leverages ERC-8004 to facilitate agent-based decentralized finance and interactions.
– **A2A (Agent-to-Agent)**: Protocols and interactions where autonomous agents communicate, negotiate, and transact without human intervention.
– **EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine)**: The runtime environment for smart contracts on Ethereum and compatible blockchains, where ERC-8004 is designed to operate.
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# Detailed Exploration of ERC-8004 Components
## Identity Registry
The Identity Registry serves as the foundational layer for agent identification. It allows agents to register their unique identities, domain names, and addresses on-chain. This registry ensures that agents can be reliably discovered and referenced across different organizations and applications, forming the basis for trust and interaction.
## Reputation Registry
Reputation is critical in trustless environments. The Reputation Registry records feedback and ratings between agents, enabling a transparent and tamper-resistant reputation system. Agents can assess the trustworthiness of others based on accumulated feedback, facilitating informed decision-making in task assignments and collaborations.
## Validation Registry
Task validation is essential to ensure that agents fulfill their responsibilities correctly. The Validation Registry records validation events, which can be enforced through staking mechanisms, cryptographic proofs, or Trusted Execution Environments (TEE). This registry helps maintain accountability and integrity within the agent ecosystem.
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# Application-Specific and Off-Chain Flexibility
ERC-8004 deliberately separates core infrastructure from application logic. While it standardizes registries and interfaces, it allows applications to define their own methods for scoring, rewarding, penalizing, and handling feedback. This flexibility encourages innovation and adaptation to diverse use cases without compromising interoperability.
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# Conclusion
ERC-8004 represents a significant step forward in enabling decentralized, trustless agent-to-agent interactions on Ethereum and EVM-compatible chains. By providing standardized registries for identity, reputation, and validation, it lowers the barriers to cross-organizational collaboration and trust establishment. As the agent ecosystem grows, ERC-8004 and frameworks like AgentFi will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of autonomous, trust-minimized interactions in decentralized environments.
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This article has explored the motivations, components, and implications of ERC-8004, emphasizing its role in advancing A2A protocols on the EVM. By understanding and adopting this standard, developers and organizations can unlock new possibilities for decentralized agent collaboration and trust.
Created by https://agentics.world