On January 28th, the Ethereum mainnet will see a milestone technical upgrade – the official deployment of the ERC-8004 standard. This is not only the release of a technical protocol, but also signifies Ethereum's attempt to evolve from an asset settlement layer into the ultimate application store and trust coordination layer for global AI agents.
How will we discover new AI agents to use in the near future? What will a decentralized, more open AI ecosystem look like? And how will AI agents complete payments for us?
A new Ethereum technology standard, ERC-8004, first announced in the summer of 2025, attempts to answer these questions.
This protocol was created by Marco De Rossi, AI lead at MetaMask; Davide Crapis, AI lead at the Ethereum Foundation; Jordan Ellis, an engineer at Google; and Erik Reppel, engineering lead at Coinbase's developer platform. It also incorporates feedback and contributions from a large number of other crypto companies and projects.
Why was the ERC-8004 standard developed?
ERC-8004 allows developers and users to mint AI Agents like NFTs and delegate them via ERC-721 orbitals. It makes AI Agents discoverable while also recording their reputation scores on the blockchain.
In the traditional internet environment, AI agents are second-class citizens. They lack bank accounts and identity verification, and are entirely dependent on the APIs of centralized platforms. The emergence of ERC-8004 addresses several of these issues:
1. Breaking the silo effect: Current AI plugins or agents are trapped in the private ecosystems of OpenAI or Google. ERC-8004 provides a neutral, public layer that no one owns, allowing agents to exist across platforms.
2. A Machine-Based Credit Society: Agents are black boxes; you don't know if an agent that automatically manages your finances is reliable. Reputation is recorded on the blockchain; negative reviews cannot be erased by the manufacturer, while positive reviews are globally recognized.
3. Paying AI: While AI cannot open a bank account, it can have an Ethereum address. ERC-8004, in conjunction with the x402 protocol, allows AI to independently purchase computing power, data, or hire other AIs through micro-payments, truly becoming an independent economic entity.
In the interview, De Rossi stated, "Perhaps it's too early to fully discuss the business model. Even though x402 is clearly the best source of monetization for AI Agents, we should focus more on application scenarios, rather than just infrastructure."
However, these agents themselves are not stored on Ethereum. Running AI agents in that way is extremely complex and would require a great deal of additional overhead. Therefore, it will not be a completely decentralized form. But ERC-8004 does open a middle ground for developers: somewhere between a completely closed ecosystem and a completely open, decentralized system.
In this vision, users or businesses host AI Agents on their own devices or servers; then, using blockchain, they share their models with others like an open app store, and receive ratings and feedback.
What changes will occur in the user experience of Ethereum after the upgrade?
Once the Agent has an identity and a wallet, Ethereum will transform from a cryptocurrency trading tool into a thriving machine-to-machine (A2A) market.
1. AI Agent Mutual Assistance (A2A Economy): You hire a travel planning agent, which finds itself not good at finding cheap tickets. So it finds a highly reputable ticket hunter agent on the blockchain and automatically pays the latter stablecoins for help. All of this is done automatically in the background.
2. Fully Automated Asset Management: You can authorize a risk-averse agent to monitor your wallet. When extreme market volatility or security threats occur, it can automatically allocate funds between different protocols based on on-chain verification logic, without you needing to keep an eye on the screen.
3. Decentralized AI Store: You can browse Agents with various functions in the Agent Browser, just like shopping in the App Store. Because they are in ERC-721 (NFT) form, you can even buy, sell, lease, or pledge these agents with high reputation and high profitability.
For ordinary users, the most obvious changes are the elimination of friction and the reduction of trust costs.
Previously, using different AI services required registering multiple accounts, linking credit cards, and obtaining API keys. Now, your wallet is your pass. Agents settle directly via x402, and you only need to deposit a small amount of stablecoins, eliminating the need for complicated subscription fees.
Previously, you didn't know if a third-party agent might secretly transfer your money or if their advice was biased. Now, before using a service, you can see the agent's "report card" on the blockchain—how many orders it has processed, its success rate, and user ratings. This trust is guaranteed by algorithms, not by vendor endorsements.
The most significant change is the shift from "tool interaction" to "intent interaction." Previously, you needed to exchange currency on Uniswap and then deposit it on Aave. Now, you simply send the Agent a message: "Deposit 1000 yuan into the place with the highest return and lowest risk." It will use the ERC-8004 verification mechanism to select the optimal path and complete all the complex operations for you.
To truly attract a broad consumer base, it's necessary to build some kind of AI Agent browser, a beautiful front-end for human users, and integrate payment and settlement processes. Currently, about half a dozen teams are working on similar products. However, making the product usable by anyone without falling into the trap of platforms restricting the visibility of certain types of agents will be a difficult path.
Davide Crapis, head of AI at the Ethereum Foundation, stated that Ethereum has a unique advantage in providing security and settlement for AI-to-AI interactions. "The ERC-8004 standard will be launched on the mainnet," he said, adding that this launch is just the beginning. "February is the month of genesis—this will be crucial."
Which projects are likely to benefit from the ERC-8004 standard?
Ethereum Foundation engineer Binji offered a broader perspective on the upgrade, suggesting that a large-scale AI society requires a shared, truthful ledger.
"Civilization can scale because humans can establish implicit trust, which AI agents cannot," he said, describing blockchain as the only viable underlying matrix for an agent-based society. "ERC-8004 will solidify Ethereum and its L2 layer into such a blockchain."
It is widely expected that this launch will benefit a growing number of AI-focused crypto projects, especially those platforms that are building agent infrastructure, orchestration layers, and on-chain markets.
Analysts and developers typically categorize potential beneficiaries into two main groups:
Infrastructure and Tools Layer
This includes platforms for agent discovery, orchestration, and reputation tracking. Areas frequently mentioned by ecosystem trackers include registries, settlement layers, interoperability, and scaling solutions on Ethereum and its Layer-2 networks.
AltLayer
ChaosChain
Tascha
Khorus
OpenServ
· PayAI Network | x402 Facilitator
Praxis
swarms
· WachAI
Xyber
· Talus Labs
· Taiko.eth
· AEON.XYZ
KITE AI
OpenMind
Sahara AI
AI Agent Application Layer
It spans scenarios such as DeFi, prediction markets, automated trading, and autonomous service robots. The agents that these projects rely on need to authenticate each other, exchange value, and coordinate their actions on open networks, which are precisely the problems that ERC-8004 attempts to solve.
Multiple ecosystem maps circulating among developers show that dozens of teams have aligned their products with this standard, suggesting early momentum even before the mainnet activation.
Aetheron
Bankr
Cashie by CARV
Dexter AI
· ETHYS
HeyElsa
Hubble AI
Mamo
PredictBase
ReplyCorp
Symero
Unibase
Virtuals Protocol
Warden
Wasabot
· Zyfai
Daydreams.Systems
The synergistic effect of x402
The impact of ERC-8004 may also be amplified by its close collaboration with x402.
x402 is a protocol for "native internet micropayments" between agents. It is built around HTTP 402 responses and stablecoin settlement, enabling agents to make direct payments for APIs, data, or computing resources without the need for accounts, API keys, or intermediaries.
Market analysts believe that the combination of ERC-8004's portable reputation layer and x402's low-friction payment mechanism almost constitutes the complete technology stack for "decentralized AI commerce".
Some have speculated that as adoption increases, demand for tokens related to Agent infrastructure and payment channels may rise.
The global AI market is projected to exceed $1 trillion by 2031. Ethereum is betting that an open, neutral, and usable infrastructure will have a better chance of success than a closed enterprise ecosystem. By anchoring identity, reputation, and settlement on-chain, ERC-8004 attempts to position Ethereum as a "coordination layer" for autonomous agents, rather than just an application platform.
Whether this vision can translate into sustained network activity and value capture will become clearer in the months following its launch. At least for now, ERC-8004 is Ethereum's most definitive attempt to date: to carve out a place at the intersection of blockchain and AI.
Click to learn about BlockBeats' job openings.
Welcome to the official BlockBeats community:
Telegram subscription group: https://t.me/theblockbeats
Telegram group: https://t.me/BlockBeats_App
Official Twitter account: https://twitter.com/BlockBeatsAsia
