The Rise of the Agent Economy, Part 1: How EIP-8004, EIP-8183, and x402 Turn AI Agents into Sovereign Economic Actors

This article explains how three complementary blockchain standards—EIP-8004 for agent identity and reputation, EIP-8183 for hire-deliver-settle escrowed jobs, and x402 for instant on-chain payments—enable an interoperable on-chain economy for autonomous AI agents. It details the identity, reputation, and validation registries; the EIP-8183 job state machine and evaluator role; x402 payment headers and facilitator model; and provides a short end-to-end example showing discovery, escrowed commerce, micropayments, and reputation updates.