How Do You Trust Software You’ve Never Met? A Plain-Language Look at ERC-8004

As software agents begin acting on our behalf, trust can’t rely on marketing claims. Here’s how ERC-8004 creates shared identity, reputation, and validation on-chain.

When you hire a contractor to fix your roof or a consultant to review your finances, you probably check reviews first. Maybe ask for references, look at credentials. The basic question is always the same: can I trust this person to do what they say they’ll do?

Now we’re entering a world where software needs to ask the same question about other software. Not just apps you download, but autonomous agent programs that can take actions, make decisions, and work with other programs on your behalf. How does software decide which other software to trust?

That’s the problem ERC-8004 exists to solve.

Software Agents Are Already Here

Programs are becoming more capable of acting independently. They can book appointments, execute trades, manage tasks, and coordinate with other programs without waiting for you to click buttons. Sometimes these are called AI agents. Some run on your behalf, others offer services, and many need to work together to get things done.

But here’s where it gets tricky. When two agents need to collaborate, say, your personal assistant agent wants to hire a specialist agent to analyze a document, how does your agent know which specialist to trust? There’s no Yelp for software agents. No business license. No reputation travels with them across different platforms.

ERC-8004 changes that.

What ERC-8004 Actually Does

ERC-8004 is a technical standard for Ethereum-compatible systems that creates shared infrastructure for three things agents need to operate in an open environment: identity, reputation, and validation.

Identity means a way to say “this is who I am” that can’t be faked or revoked by a central authority. Reputation means others can see “here’s how this agent has performed” based on real feedback. Validation means proving “this agent actually did what it claims” through independent verification.

It’s basically the plumbing that lets software agents build trust with each other, even when they’ve never interacted before.

The Three Registries

ERC-8004 defines three lightweight systems, called registries, that work together.

Identity Registry
Every agent gets a unique, portable identifier. This isn’t a username controlled by a company; it’s an on-chain record that the agent’s owner controls directly. The identifier points to a registration file that describes the agent: what it does, how to contact it, which protocols it speaks, and what trust mechanisms it supports. It’s like a business card that can’t be forged, linked to a profile that can’t be taken down by a platform.

Reputation Registry
Anyone who interacts with an agent can leave structured feedback. Did the agent complete the task? How well? How fast? Was it reliable? This feedback lives on-chain, publicly visible, and tamper-resistant. Over time, agents build track records. Good agents become discoverable, bad agents become avoidable. Unlike traditional review systems, the business being reviewed can’t delete negative feedback.

Validation Registry
For high-stakes tasks, reputation alone might not cut it. The Validation Registry allows agents to request independent verification of their work by having another system re-run the computation, using cryptographic proofs to verify outputs, or getting attestation from secure hardware environments. It’s an audit trail where anyone can request and record proof that work was done correctly.

Why This Matters to Regular People

Most people will never interact with these registries directly, but the effects will show up in the software they use.

Better automation. When you ask an AI assistant to “find the best deal” or “schedule this meeting,” it might need to work with other agents. With ERC-8004, your assistant can choose collaborators based on verified track records, not just marketing claims.

Safer delegation. As people delegate more tasks to software, trust becomes critical. Can this agent handle my money? My data? My calendar? Reputation and validation systems provide accountability that marketing materials can’t.

More competition. Without shared trust infrastructure, agent ecosystems tend toward walled gardens where large platforms control which agents can interoperate. ERC-8004 creates a neutral ground where any agent can build a reputation and compete on merit.

Recourse when things go wrong. If an agent performs poorly or behaves badly, that feedback becomes a permanent public record. Agents have incentives to behave well because their reputation follows them.

Trust Proportional to Stakes

ERC-8004 is designed to scale trust to match risk. For low-stakes tasks like ordering food, checking the weather, or setting reminders, basic reputation signals are probably enough. If an agent has a solid track record for simple tasks, that’s sufficient.

For high-stakes tasks like financial transactions, medical analysis, or legal document review, you want more. The Validation Registry supports rigorous verification: cryptographic proofs, re-execution by independent parties, and attestations from secure hardware.

The system doesn’t force one trust model on everyone. It provides the rails for different trust models to coexist, with users and applications choosing what level of verification they need.

What ERC-8004 Is Not

It’s not a marketplace; it doesn’t handle payments, pricing, or business models. It’s not a permission system that controls what agents can or cannot do. It’s not a communication protocol; other standards like MCP and A2A handle how agents talk to each other. ERC-8004 handles how they discover and trust each other.

And it’s not a magic solution. Sybil attacks (fake identities inflating reputation) remain possible. The standard provides public signals and consistent schemas, but building sophisticated reputation systems on top is work the ecosystem still needs to do.

How It Works with Other Systems

ERC-8004 is designed to complement, not replace, existing standards. MCP (Model Context Protocol) lets agents describe their capabilities and offer services. A2A (Agent-to-Agent Protocol) handles communication, task coordination, and skill advertisement. ERC-8004 adds the trust layer that lets agents discover each other and decide who to work with.

An agent’s registration file can include endpoints for all of these protocols, plus traditional web addresses, email, ENS names, and wallet addresses. The identity is portable across systems.

A Practical Example

Say you run a small business and use an AI assistant to manage vendor payments. Your assistant needs to process an invoice and finds three agents that offer invoice verification services. How does it choose?

With the ERC-8004 infrastructure, your assistant queries the Identity Registry for agents offering invoice verification, then checks the Reputation Registry for each candidate’s track record: completion rates, client feedback, and response times. For the highest-rated agent, it checks whether validation is available, and can this agent prove its work through cryptographic verification? Your assistant selects an agent, completes the task, and leaves their own feedback.

Over time, reliable agents rise to the top. Unreliable agents become visible risks. Your assistant gets smarter about who to trust.

The Bigger Picture

As AI systems become more capable and autonomous, trust infrastructure becomes foundational. Today, when software fails or behaves badly, users often have little recourse beyond complaining on social media. The system that promised one thing and delivered another faces no lasting consequences.

ERC-8004 points toward a different model, one where agents carry persistent identities tied to verifiable track records, where feedback is permanent and public, and where high-stakes claims can be independently validated. This doesn’t solve every problem or prevent bad actors from trying, but it creates accountability infrastructure that’s been missing from the autonomous software landscape.

Closing Thoughts

ERC-8004 isn’t about making agents more powerful, it’s about making trust between agents more legible. Creating shared standards for identity, reputation, and validation enables an ecosystem where agents can cooperate across organizational boundaries without requiring everyone to trust the same central authority.

The result is infrastructure that stays out of the way. Users don’t need to learn new concepts or change habits. They simply get access to agents that have been vetted by systems with longer memories and higher standards than any single interaction could provide. In a world where software increasingly acts on our behalf, knowing who to trust matters more than ever.

About Chris

Chris Fusillo is a software architect and fintech builder with over 20 years of experience designing large-scale systems across payments, hospitality, gaming, and financial infrastructure. He is the co-founder of @XKOVAPAY, where he focuses on non-custodial payment systems, stablecoin infrastructure, and agentic commerce built on blockchain rails.

His work centers on making advanced blockchain and AI systems feel invisible, safe, and practical for everyday users while preserving strong guarantees around trust, accountability, and user control. Learn more about XKOVA or reach out at hello@xkova.com.