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Ahmed Barakat
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The Pocket Network Foundation (PNF), a non-profit organization that manages one of the largest node-based networks in the Web3, today announced the submission of ERC-8294, called “Validation Network for ERC-8004,” as a standard for Ethereum ERCs.
The proposal was written by contributors from PNF and Synaptika and is now being reviewed by Ethereum’s ERC editors, and discussed openly on Ethereum Magicians.
ERC-8294 extends ERC-8004, Ethereum’s upcoming standard for untrusted AI agents, by introducing the IValidationNetwork: a smart contract model that allows a network of independent validators, instead of relying on any address, to act as a reliable part of the AI agent’s guarantee within ERC-8004’s Regidation.
Closing the Gap in AI Agent Infrastructure
The ERC-8004 Validation Registry is intentionally anonymous about who certifies the AI agent, a deliberate choice that allows multiple validations to emerge and compete. In practice, teams building multi-authorization systems have had to create their own selection rules, authentication formats, and authentication methods from scratch, without a shared consensus standard. As a result, customers joining more than one network are forced to enter a verification code for each.
ERC-8294 defines the missing interface. It represents a part of the agreement with the validation envelope from EIP-712, so that any standard network, whether it is an unlicensed RPC network, an Actively Validated Service (AVS), a TEE consortium, or a standard oracle network, can use the standard and be validated by the same client. This proposal does not specify any selection method, motivational model, or cut-off model; defines only the form.
Operator Diversity as a First Parameter
The central principle of the design is the management of different types of users as a predictable, traceable process. Callers may not specify how many validators must verify an agent’s actions, but how many known, independent validators must be excluded, a security gap that existing methods have left unclear or unenforced. As it is said, the choice of authentication that each authorized user shares with one user is a random connection.
The concept is focused on the limits of the guarantee: the agreement can count the users but cannot guarantee their independence. Therefore, the robustness of the proposed variation depends on the reliability of each network’s advertisement identification methods and sentiment analysis, which ERC-8294 requires the network to publish together with the contracts submitted.
More, More Comprehensive
ERC-8294 does not replace the ERC-8004 Validation Registry agreement. Existing single-address validations continue to function unchanged, and integrated responses are also indexed through existing databases, maintaining compatibility with indexers and researchers. This extension is intended to be integrated with ERC-8004, not to replace or compete with any part.
The live implementation is made against the Pocket Network supplier set, an unlicensed network of about 5,000 support nodes that operate independently of several independent, and randomly selected from the active part, ships according to the v1 specification in some places. It is presented as one of several possibilities, not as an opportunity.
“AI agents working on Ethereum need a trust layer that reflects the principles on which the network was built,” said Chris “Jinx” Jenkins, Managing Director at the Pocket Network Foundation and co-author of the petition. “This standard gives every network the features they need to do the job, and it gives every AI client a way to communicate and verify the authenticity of many operations, regardless of network.
ERC-8294 co-authors include Chris “Jinx” Jenkins (Pocket Network Foundation), Luis Correa de León (Synaptika), Bryan White (Pocket Network Community Engineering), and Tiago Merlini, author of ERC-8299 and ERC-8309. The documents are available in the Ethereum ERCs repository, and official documents and documents are maintained by PNF, and discussions are open on Ethereum Magicians.
ERC-8294:
https://github.com/pokt-network/erc-8004-vni/blob/main/erc-8294.md
Discussion:
https://ethereum-magicians.org/t/erc-8294-validation-network-interface-for-erc-8004/28669
Expect to include:
https://github.com/ethereum/ERCs/pull/1808
About the Pocket Network Foundation
The Pocket Network Foundation is a non-profit organization that provides an RPC foundation connected to blockchain data through a permissionless network of thousands of independent individuals around the world.
