Ethereum Launches dAI to Bridge Silicon Valley AI and Advance ERC-8004 for the AI Agent Economy
Ethereum Foundation launches dAI to make the network a base layer for AI. First focus: ERC-8004 enabling agent discovery, verification, and on-chain payments, set for Devconnect.
Ethereum forms dAI team to make the network a base layer for AI
The Ethereum Foundation has launched a dedicated AI team, dAI, led by core developer Davide Crapis. The mandate: connect blockchain organizations with major AI companies and make Ethereum a practical foundation for AI development, not just finance.
The message is clear. AI will be central to Ethereum's long-term sustainability as it integrates deeper into everyday software and infrastructure.
ERC-8004: Agent-native interoperability
The team's first target is ERC-8004 - a standard to help AI agents discover, verify, and transact across Ethereum with minimal friction. The proposal is set to be finalized at Devconnect in Buenos Aires this November, positioning Ethereum as the settlement layer for AI agents.
Two new full-time roles will support the dAI effort. The Foundation's investment signals a serious push to bridge the AI and blockchain ecosystems and build decentralized AI infrastructure that avoids corporate lock-in.
Why this matters for developers
- Agent-ready rails: ERC-8004 aims to standardize how agents find services, prove inputs/outputs, and pay on-chain - the core plumbing for autonomous workloads.
- Ethereum as the AI settlement layer: Expect primitives for metering, payments, identity, staking, and reputation to converge around agent ops.
- Decentralized AI stack: Incentives to move compute, verification, and model provenance away from single-vendor control.
- Institutional pull: Framing AI like DeFi could draw enterprises that need auditability, compliance hooks, and reliable settlement.
Practical steps to prepare
- Track ERC-8004 and design agent workflows that interact with smart contracts (service discovery, attestations, pay-per-call, refunds, dispute handling).
- Prototype verification flows (commit-reveal, multi-party attestations, zk-friendly summaries) to validate model outputs and data lineage.
- Plan for microtransactions and rate-limited access to AI services; align pricing and metering with on-chain tokens and usage caps.
- Think UX for agents: keys, session management, risk thresholds, and policy-enforced spending via smart accounts.
- Assess where off-chain compute, rollups, and data availability fit your pipeline; minimize on-chain footprint while keeping critical checkpoints verifiable.
Ecosystem signals
The dAI team has started research collaborations with major Silicon Valley companies, though details aren't public yet. The direction of travel is obvious: build decentralized tech that makes Ethereum as usable for AI as it already is for finance.
Open questions to watch
- Adoption: Will wallets, infra providers, and service marketplaces rally around ERC-8004 quickly?
- Costs: Where do inference, verification, and settlement costs land - and what belongs on-chain vs. off-chain?
- Security and compliance: How are adversarial prompts, model tampering, and data rights enforced across agent flows?
- UX: Can devs hide complexity so agents operate safely without constant human intervention?
