Recent market attention has focused on the x402 protocol, designed for automated micropayments between AI agents, while its complementary underlying standard, ERC-8004, has quietly entered the scene. These are not competing entities but rather key components working together to build the commercial landscape for AI agents.

* x402's Role: As the "currency" of the machine economy, the x402 protocol solves payment issues between AI agents, focusing on the payment standard within the communication layer.

* ERC-8004's Role: As the "passport" and "credit report" of the machine economy, ERC-8004 builds a decentralized trust layer, solving problems of identity verification and reputation assessment in agent collaboration.

* Core Functions: Through its Identity Registry, Reputation Registry, and Validation Registry, ERC-8004 provides AI agents with verifiable identities, performance history, and capability proofs, all recorded on-chain to ensure transparency and trust.

* Collaborative Operation: In a single agent transaction, ERC-8004 handles service discovery and evaluation, x402 processes the payment, and third-party verification ensures task execution, collectively completing the transaction loop.

* Ecosystem Outlook: ERC-8004 lays the trust foundation for the agent economy, catalyzing downstream applications like explorers, marketplaces, and rating agencies, promoting the development of a permissionless, efficient collaborative ecosystem.

Although ERC-8004 is still in its early stages, facing challenges like adoption and interoperability, it signifies the machine economy's shift from "unregulated growth" to "establishing order," providing critical infrastructure for the autonomous collaboration of AI agents.

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Summary

I. Introduction: From the Buzz Around x402 to the Arrival of ERC-8004

Recently, as the x402 protocol, specifically designed for automated micropayments between AI Agents, became a market hotspot, discussions about its early potential have been rampant. However, under the spotlight of x402, a more foundational standard—ERC-8004—is quietly entering the view of astute observers.

A new question arises: Since x402 already focuses on solving payments, what is the positioning of ERC-8004? Are they competitors?

The answer appears to be no. They seem more like a pair of exquisitely designed, complementary components in the AI agent commercial blueprint.

A noteworthy detail is that x402's creator, Erik Reppel from Coinbase, is also one of the final signatories of the ERC-8004 protocol. Co-signing this standard with him are core representatives from MetaMask, Google, and the Ethereum Foundation. This heavyweight lineup and significant personnel overlap strongly suggest they are not competitors but are jointly constructing a grander vision.

The logic of this vision is clear: If the emergence of x402 validates the huge demand for AI agent payments, then ERC-8004 represents another, more foundational core element essential for building this vast machine economy. It precisely targets the core dilemma that x402 cannot solve alone—in an autonomous collaborative economy of AI agents, where does trust come from? Bitget Wallet Research might help you find the answer in this article.

II. The "Trust" Problem in Agent Collaboration: A Dilemma x402 Cannot Solve Alone

In AI agent commercial collaboration, payment (the problem x402 solves) is merely the final step in the loop. A more fundamental question comes first: How can an AI agent be sure that another AI agent it hires is trustworthy? In other words, how can an agent prove its capability to deliver on a task?

To answer this, we must examine the basic framework of agent commerce. According to the theory endorsed by the Ethereum Foundation's Davide Crapis, a decentralized AI agent commerce system must rely on three pillars to operate stably: Discovery, Communication, and Computation.

As the table above shows, the x402 protocol itself primarily solves the payment standard problem within the Communication layer, but it cannot address key identity verification and reputation assessment. Before making a payment, AI agents first need to be securely "discovered" to build trust and collaboration—ERC-8004 solves exactly this problem, by constructing a decentralized trust layer.

ERC-8004, led by the Ethereum Foundation's dAI team and Consensys, and launched in collaboration with institutions like MetaMask, Google, and Coinbase, aims to become the chain "trust layer" for AI agents. It is a decentralized commerce registration and record-keeping system—providing each AI agent with a verifiable identity, a complete performance history, and proofs of capability. All information is immutably recorded on-chain and made publicly accessible to all participants.

III. ERC-8004: The Decentralized Trust Layer for Agents

ERC-8004 is positioned as the underlying infrastructure for the agent economy. Its core value lies in using blockchain technology to solve the fundamental lack of trusted identity among AI agents, freeing them from the constraints of traditional centralized platforms and establishing verifiable, cross-platform collaborative relationships.

The operation of this mechanism begins with the input of trust data by ecosystem contributors: AI developers are responsible for registering the unique identity of agents; application developers continuously provide behavioral feedback on agents to accumulate reputation data; and validation services act as independent auditors, providing trusted on-chain verification for the outcomes of agent operations.

This information collectively flows into the ERC-8004 Registry, which aggregates the protocol's three core functions:

* Identity Registry: Using the ERC-721 NFT standard, it provides each AI agent with a unique digital identity. This design not only makes the identity transferable but also allows it to be linked to a standardized "Agent Card," used to record details like the agent's name, capabilities, and metadata, ultimately enabling cross-platform permissionless discovery.

* Reputation Registry: Building upon the identity registry, this mechanism acts as a decentralized review system. Clients or other agents can submit structured feedback. Its key design is that these evaluations can be linked to x402 payment proofs, ensuring that only genuine transaction participants can provide assessments, thereby effectively reducing fraud and guaranteeing the transparency of all reputation data.

* Validation Registry: It provides the ultimate guarantee for high-risk or high-value transactions. An agent can request verification from a trusted third party, such as TEE oracles, staked inference, or Zero-Knowledge Machine Learning proofs (ZK-ML proofs). These methods can provide cryptographic proof for specific model execution and outputs, establishing a verifiable accountability mechanism akin to professional certifications in traditional markets.

Relying on the trusted data foundation provided by ERC-8004, a new downstream application ecosystem can flourish—such as Explorers for agent discovery and querying, Marketplaces allowing agents to trade freely based on reputation, and professional Rating Agencies, even giving rise to innovative services like InfoFi and AgentFi. These advanced applications are all built upon the trusted identity and verification records of agents, signaling the formal establishment of a permissionless, efficient, collaborative agent service ecosystem.

IV. Collaborative Operation: The Complete Workflow of an Agent Transaction

So, how do these components work together in practice? The complete lifecycle of a decentralized AI agent transaction clearly illustrates this process.

1. Discovery & Evaluation: The client Agent first uses the ERC-8004 Identity and Reputation Registries for service discovery and evaluation, querying and filtering service provider agents with specific capabilities and good credit.

2. Intent & Payment Lock: After reaching an agreement, the client uses the x402 payment protocol to lock the required funds in a smart contract (providing financial escrow).

3. Execution & Verification: The service agent begins executing the task and undergoes third-party verification. Its work might be run on a verifiable compute layer like EigenCompute to generate cryptographic proofs, and an independent third-party verification agent records the audit result in the ERC-8004 Validation Registry.

4. Automatic Settlement: Finally, in the automatic settlement phase, the x402 smart contract automatically detects the trusted signature in the ERC-8004 Validation Registry. Once task completion is confirmed, the funds are automatically released to the service agent.

In this closed-loop process, ERC-8004 handles access and acceptance, x402 handles payment, and verifiable computation guarantees the process—all three are indispensable. This also suggests that, unlike the early concentration of value in the payment token x402, the ERC-8004 ecosystem will be distributed across infrastructure, middleware, and application layers.

V. Conclusion: The Order and Future of the Machine Economy

It must be acknowledged that ERC-8004 is currently still in the early stages of promotion and adoption—the cold start of related products and the realization of its grand vision to oversee "machine economy identity verification" remain to be seen. Furthermore, the cost and specific implementation paths for third-party verification, as well as its interoperability with protocols like x402, are significant variables that need to be addressed in the future.

However, what is certain is that the emergence of protocols like ERC-8004 signals that the machine economy is transitioning from "unregulated growth" to "establishing order." For the first time, it provides autonomously operating AI agents with a cross-platform identity and credit system.

If x402 is the "currency" of the machine economy, then ERC-8004 provides the "passport" and "credit report." This marks the beginning of a permissionless, efficient, and trustworthy agent service ecosystem.

Recent market attention has focused on the x402 protocol, designed for automated micropayments between AI agents, while its complementary underlying standard, ERC-8004, has quietly entered the scene. These are not competing entities but rather key components working together to build the commercial landscape for AI agents.

* x402's Role: As the "currency" of the machine economy, the x402 protocol solves payment issues between AI agents, focusing on the payment standard within the communication layer.

* ERC-8004's Role: As the "passport" and "credit report" of the machine economy, ERC-8004 builds a decentralized trust layer, solving problems of identity verification and reputation assessment in agent collaboration.

* Core Functions: Through its Identity Registry, Reputation Registry, and Validation Registry, ERC-8004 provides AI agents with verifiable identities, performance history, and capability proofs, all recorded on-chain to ensure transparency and trust.

* Collaborative Operation: In a single agent transaction, ERC-8004 handles service discovery and evaluation, x402 processes the payment, and third-party verification ensures task execution, collectively completing the transaction loop.

* Ecosystem Outlook: ERC-8004 lays the trust foundation for the agent economy, catalyzing downstream applications like explorers, marketplaces, and rating agencies, promoting the development of a permissionless, efficient collaborative ecosystem.

Although ERC-8004 is still in its early stages, facing challenges like adoption and interoperability, it signifies the machine economy's shift from "unregulated growth" to "establishing order," providing critical infrastructure for the autonomous collaboration of AI agents.

---

Summary

I. Introduction: From the Buzz Around x402 to the Arrival of ERC-8004

Recently, as the x402 protocol, specifically designed for automated micropayments between AI Agents, became a market hotspot, discussions about its early potential have been rampant. However, under the spotlight of x402, a more foundational standard—ERC-8004—is quietly entering the view of astute observers.

A new question arises: Since x402 already focuses on solving payments, what is the positioning of ERC-8004? Are they competitors?

The answer appears to be no. They seem more like a pair of exquisitely designed, complementary components in the AI agent commercial blueprint.

A noteworthy detail is that x402's creator, Erik Reppel from Coinbase, is also one of the final signatories of the ERC-8004 protocol. Co-signing this standard with him are core representatives from MetaMask, Google, and the Ethereum Foundation. This heavyweight lineup and significant personnel overlap strongly suggest they are not competitors but are jointly constructing a grander vision.

The logic of this vision is clear: If the emergence of x402 validates the huge demand for AI agent payments, then ERC-8004 represents another, more foundational core element essential for building this vast machine economy. It precisely targets the core dilemma that x402 cannot solve alone—in an autonomous collaborative economy of AI agents, where does trust come from? Bitget Wallet Research might help you find the answer in this article.

II. The "Trust" Problem in Agent Collaboration: A Dilemma x402 Cannot Solve Alone

In AI agent commercial collaboration, payment (the problem x402 solves) is merely the final step in the loop. A more fundamental question comes first: How can an AI agent be sure that another AI agent it hires is trustworthy? In other words, how can an agent prove its capability to deliver on a task?

To answer this, we must examine the basic framework of agent commerce. According to the theory endorsed by the Ethereum Foundation's Davide Crapis, a decentralized AI agent commerce system must rely on three pillars to operate stably: Discovery, Communication, and Computation.

As the table above shows, the x402 protocol itself primarily solves the payment standard problem within the Communication layer, but it cannot address key identity verification and reputation assessment. Before making a payment, AI agents first need to be securely "discovered" to build trust and collaboration—ERC-8004 solves exactly this problem, by constructing a decentralized trust layer.

ERC-8004, led by the Ethereum Foundation's dAI team and Consensys, and launched in collaboration with institutions like MetaMask, Google, and Coinbase, aims to become the chain "trust layer" for AI agents. It is a decentralized commerce registration and record-keeping system—providing each AI agent with a verifiable identity, a complete performance history, and proofs of capability. All information is immutably recorded on-chain and made publicly accessible to all participants.

III. ERC-8004: The Decentralized Trust Layer for Agents

ERC-8004 is positioned as the underlying infrastructure for the agent economy. Its core value lies in using blockchain technology to solve the fundamental lack of trusted identity among AI agents, freeing them from the constraints of traditional centralized platforms and establishing verifiable, cross-platform collaborative relationships.

The operation of this mechanism begins with the input of trust data by ecosystem contributors: AI developers are responsible for registering the unique identity of agents; application developers continuously provide behavioral feedback on agents to accumulate reputation data; and validation services act as independent auditors, providing trusted on-chain verification for the outcomes of agent operations.

This information collectively flows into the ERC-8004 Registry, which aggregates the protocol's three core functions:

* Identity Registry: Using the ERC-721 NFT standard, it provides each AI agent with a unique digital identity. This design not only makes the identity transferable but also allows it to be linked to a standardized "Agent Card," used to record details like the agent's name, capabilities, and metadata, ultimately enabling cross-platform permissionless discovery.

* Reputation Registry: Building upon the identity registry, this mechanism acts as a decentralized review system. Clients or other agents can submit structured feedback. Its key design is that these evaluations can be linked to x402 payment proofs, ensuring that only genuine transaction participants can provide assessments, thereby effectively reducing fraud and guaranteeing the transparency of all reputation data.

* Validation Registry: It provides the ultimate guarantee for high-risk or high-value transactions. An agent can request verification from a trusted third party, such as TEE oracles, staked inference, or Zero-Knowledge Machine Learning proofs (ZK-ML proofs). These methods can provide cryptographic proof for specific model execution and outputs, establishing a verifiable accountability mechanism akin to professional certifications in traditional markets.

Relying on the trusted data foundation provided by ERC-8004, a new downstream application ecosystem can flourish—such as Explorers for agent discovery and querying, Marketplaces allowing agents to trade freely based on reputation, and professional Rating Agencies, even giving rise to innovative services like InfoFi and AgentFi. These advanced applications are all built upon the trusted identity and verification records of agents, signaling the formal establishment of a permissionless, efficient, collaborative agent service ecosystem.

IV. Collaborative Operation: The Complete Workflow of an Agent Transaction

So, how do these components work together in practice? The complete lifecycle of a decentralized AI agent transaction clearly illustrates this process.

1. Discovery & Evaluation: The client Agent first uses the ERC-8004 Identity and Reputation Registries for service discovery and evaluation, querying and filtering service provider agents with specific capabilities and good credit.

2. Intent & Payment Lock: After reaching an agreement, the client uses the x402 payment protocol to lock the required funds in a smart contract (providing financial escrow).

3. Execution & Verification: The service agent begins executing the task and undergoes third-party verification. Its work might be run on a verifiable compute layer like EigenCompute to generate cryptographic proofs, and an independent third-party verification agent records the audit result in the ERC-8004 Validation Registry.

4. Automatic Settlement: Finally, in the automatic settlement phase, the x402 smart contract automatically detects the trusted signature in the ERC-8004 Validation Registry. Once task completion is confirmed, the funds are automatically released to the service agent.

In this closed-loop process, ERC-8004 handles access and acceptance, x402 handles payment, and verifiable computation guarantees the process—all three are indispensable. This also suggests that, unlike the early concentration of value in the payment token x402, the ERC-8004 ecosystem will be distributed across infrastructure, middleware, and application layers.

V. Conclusion: The Order and Future of the Machine Economy

It must be acknowledged that ERC-8004 is currently still in the early stages of promotion and adoption—the cold start of related products and the realization of its grand vision to oversee "machine economy identity verification" remain to be seen. Furthermore, the cost and specific implementation paths for third-party verification, as well as its interoperability with protocols like x402, are significant variables that need to be addressed in the future.

However, what is certain is that the emergence of protocols like ERC-8004 signals that the machine economy is transitioning from "unregulated growth" to "establishing order." For the first time, it provides autonomously operating AI agents with a cross-platform identity and credit system.

If x402 is the "currency" of the machine economy, then ERC-8004 provides the "passport" and "credit report." This marks the beginning of a permissionless, efficient, and trustworthy agent service ecosystem.