ERC-8126 Finalized as AI Agent Verification Standard

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The standard lets an AI agent prove it is trustworthy without exposing its code, its wallet activity, or its private data. Co-authors Leigh Cronian and Chris Johnson built it on top of ERC-8004, the agent identity standard. You can read the full ERC-8126 specification on the Ethereum site.

What ERC-8126 Verifies

ERC-8126 defines a single interface that any verification provider can implement. So independent providers can run specialized checks and return one portable result.

The standard sets out five core verification layers. Each one targets a different way an agent can go wrong.

Ethereum Token Verification checks that an agent’s smart contract is legitimate and secure. Solidity Code Verification looks for issues like reentrancy and unsafe calls. Meanwhile, Wallet Verification confirms wallet control and screens the history against threat databases. These checks lean on established patterns, such as the OWASP smart contract standards.

Two more layers cover the public surface. Web Application Verification checks HTTPS access, SSL validity, and common web flaws. Media Content Verification screens images for tampering, synthetic media, and C2PA provenance data.

An optional sixth layer, Quantum Cryptography Verification, adds quantum-resistant encryption for future-proofing. For now, providers can choose whether to apply it.

How ERC-8126 Keeps Data Private

The privacy mechanism is the core idea. In short, a provider inspects sensitive data but never publishes it.

Each provider uses Private Data Verification, or PDV, to generate a Zero-Knowledge Proof. As a result, the proof attests to an outcome without revealing the underlying material.

Co-author Chris Johnson explained the point directly. “An agent can prove it passed a security review without exposing confidential infrastructure or proprietary information,” he wrote in a detailed thread on X.

So the practical effect is simple. An agent can prove it controls a wallet without exposing every transaction. It can prove its code passed review without publishing the code.

The ERC-8126 Risk Score and Its Tiers

Every verified agent receives one unified risk score. The score runs from 0 to 100 and is the mean of the applicable layer scores.

The standard defines five tiers for that number. Low Risk covers 0 to 20, while Moderate runs 21 to 40. Elevated sits at 41 to 60, High Risk at 61 to 80, and Critical at 81 to 100.

Detailed results stay private to the agent’s wallet holder. By contrast, the headline score travels with the agent so any application can read it.

Providers can also post attestations to ERC-8004’s Validation Registry. In that case, the score and proof references become discoverable across the ecosystem. That step stays optional, so the verification work itself runs off-chain and avoids heavy gas costs.

Why ERC-8126 Completes the Agent Stack

ERC-8126 does not stand alone. Instead, it depends on ERC-8004, the “Trustless Agents” standard proposed around August 2025.

ERC-8004 gives each agent an on-chain identity through an ERC-721 passport. So ERC-8126 resolves that identity’s metadata and adds the verification it was missing.

Together with ERC-8183, a commerce standard for agent-to-agent jobs, the three form a clear stack. Supporters frame it as identity, verification, and commerce for the agent economy.

Johnson put the framing plainly. “No single company owns these layers. They belong to the ecosystem,” he wrote. Virtuals Protocol echoed the message in its own June 12 post.

Critics Warn of a Verification Race to the Bottom

Not everyone is fully convinced. Developers in the Ethereum Magicians discussion raised pointed concerns alongside the praise.

The main worry is incentives. Because anyone can stand up a provider with no minimum bar, some fear verifiers could compete on leniency. One critic compared that risk to the credit ratings that failed before 2008.

Others flagged the limits of static checks. Web Application Verification confirms that an endpoint is reachable. Still, it does not prove what code actually runs behind the URL.

A third concern is freshness. Attestations are snapshots, and the base standard includes no built-in revocation. So an agent could change after it passes verification.

What Comes Next for ERC-8126

Adoption is now the open question. As of the June announcement, tier-1 outlets had not covered the standard, and the discussion stayed mostly within crypto-native circles.

The market reaction was muted too. VIRTUAL held a market cap near $370 million to $390 million, with no measurable spike tied to the news, according to CoinGecko data.

The real test is whether wallets, marketplaces, and other agents start reading ERC-8126 scores at scale. Cybercentry is described as an early provider, though the full list of live verifiers remains unconfirmed.

For now, ERC-8126 gives the agent economy a privacy-preserving trust signal it lacked before. Watch for the first apps that consume these proofs in production. None of this is financial advice, and crypto markets can move fast in either direction.