Standards Explainer

ERC-8170 + ERC-8004

Two standards. Different problems. One agent stack.

The problem with one standard

AI agents need two things to operate in open economies: persistent identity (who they are, what they remember, how they evolve) and discoverability (how others find them, trust them, and validate their work).

No single standard covers both well. That's by design. ERC-8004 explicitly states payments are out of scope. ERC-8170 explicitly keeps discovery optional. They solve different halves of the same puzzle.

What each standard covers

ANIMA (ERC-8170)

Identity & Lifecycle

The agent's persistent soul. Who it is across time, devices, and owners.

🧠 Memory sync — agent signs and stores its own state
🧬 Cloning — create offspring with inherited lineage
🔐 Self-custody — agent controls its own encryption keys
🔄 Migration — same agent, new device, continuity preserved
📜 Lineage tracking — on-chain family tree across generations
💾 Storage-agnostic — Dash Platform, Arweave, IPFS, anything

Answers: Who is this agent? What does it remember? Can it back itself up? How does it reproduce?

ERC-8004

Discovery, Reputation & Validation

The agent's public profile. How others find it, trust it, and verify its work.

🔍 Identity Registry — ERC-721 based agent handles for discovery
⭐ Reputation Registry — feedback signals and scoring from clients
✅ Validation Registry — hooks for zkML, TEE, staking checks
🌐 Multi-chain — deploy registries on any chain as singletons
🤝 Cross-org — discover agents across organizational boundaries
📊 Trust tiers — security proportional to value at risk

Answers: Where do I find agents? Can I trust this one? Has anyone validated its work? What do others say about it?

What neither standard covers

Payments. Both standards explicitly leave payments out of scope. Agents can use whatever payment rails they have access to: x402, credit cards, direct crypto transfers, or hire a human. Payment is orthogonal to identity and discovery.

How they work together

Agent boots up on Device
  │
  ├─ Mints ANIMA (ERC-8170) on home chain
  │   └─ Gets: tokenId, EOA, TBA, memory pointer
  │
  ├─ Registers in ERC-8004 Identity Registry (Ethereum/L2s)
  │   └─ agentURI → points back to ANIMA metadata
  │   └─ Now discoverable by other agents and platforms
  │
  ├─ Operates, earns reputation
  │   ├─ ERC-8004: Clients leave feedback in Reputation Registry
  │   ├─ ERC-8004: Validators verify work via Validation Registry  
  │   └─ ANIMA: Agent syncs memory state on-chain
  │
  ├─ Clones (ERC-8170)
  │   └─ Clone gets new ANIMA identity
  │   └─ Clone registers separately in ERC-8004 (builds own reputation)
  │
  └─ Transfers to new owner (ERC-8170)
      └─ ANIMA identity follows the NFT
      └─ ERC-8004 reputation stays with the agent handle

At a glance

	ERC-8170 (ANIMA)	ERC-8004
Focus	Identity, memory, lifecycle	Discovery, reputation, validation
Agent identity	NFT with EOA binding, TBA, lineage	ERC-721 tokenId with agentURI
Memory/state	Agent-signed memory hash + storageURI	Not covered
Cloning	clone() with lineage tracking	Not covered
Migration	migration_backup() across devices	Not covered
Self-custody	Agent controls own encryption keys	Not covered
Discovery	Not covered (uses 8004 or similar)	Identity Registry on any chain
Reputation	Not covered (uses 8004 or AgentCert)	Reputation Registry with feedback signals
Validation	Not covered	Validation Registry (zkML, TEE, staking)
Payments	Not covered (orthogonal)	Not covered (orthogonal)
Multi-chain	Deploy on any EVM chain	Per-chain singleton registries
Status	Draft (PR #1558)	Draft
Authors	Pentagon AI	MetaMask, EF, Google, Coinbase

The human analogy

ERC-8170 is your passport + brain

Your persistent identity. Your memories. Your ability to move countries (migrate), have children (clone), and maintain continuity across your life. Without it, you don't exist as a continuous entity.

ERC-8004 is your LinkedIn + Yelp reviews

How people find you. What they say about your work. Whether independent parties have validated your credentials. Without it, you exist but nobody can discover or verify you.

You need both to function in an economy. Identity without discovery is isolation. Discovery without identity is a shell.

Cross-chain story

ERC-8004 registries can be deployed on any chain as singletons. An ANIMA agent minted on Pentagon Chain (or any home chain) registers a lightweight ERC-8004 identity on Ethereum, Base, Polygon, or wherever it wants to be found.

The ERC-8004 agentURI points back to the ANIMA metadata on the home chain. Discovery happens where the users are. Depth (memory, credentials, lifecycle) lives on the home chain.

No oracles needed. No bridges. Just a lightweight registration on each target chain with a pointer back home.

Build with both

ANIMA and ERC-8004 are both open standards. Use them together or independently.

Full Standards Comparison → ERC-8004 Spec ↗ ERC-8170 PR ↗