ERC-8004 AI Standard Targets Thursday Mainnet Launch
A new Ethereum smart contract standard, ERC-8004, is expected to launch on the mainnet this Thursday at approximately 9:00 UTC-5. Marco De Rossi, head of AI at MetaMask, announced on Monday that development for the protocol has been "frozen" in preparation for the midweek deployment. The official Ethereum X account later confirmed the standard is going live on the mainnet "soon." This Ethereum Request for Comment (ERC) proposes a standardized method for registering and validating AI agents that can be implemented by developers without requiring any changes to the core Ethereum network.
Protocol Establishes Trust for an On-Chain AI Economy
ERC-8004 is designed to establish an open agent economy on the blockchain by addressing two fundamental challenges: how to discover different AI agents and how to verify their reliability in untrusted settings. While existing protocols handle agent communication and task orchestration, ERC-8004 provides the missing layer for discovery and a portable reputation system. This enables AI agents to interact and transact across organizational boundaries without pre-existing trust.
Ethereum is in the unique position to be the platform that secures and settles AI-to-AI interactions.
— Davide Crapis, AI Lead at the Ethereum Foundation.
Unlocking a Global Market for AI Services
The ultimate goal of ERC-8004 is to transform AI agents from isolated tools into active economic participants. By standardizing discovery and trust, the protocol "unlocks a global market where AI services can interoperate without gatekeepers," according to a statement from the Ethereum project. The standard is also planned to work on the Ethereum layer-2 network Base, though a specific timeline was not provided. This integration with scaling solutions and payment protocols like Coinbase's x402, which enables automated payments, lays the groundwork for a fully autonomous, on-chain AI economy.
