2026-11-03 –, Lightning Stage
8004 is an Ethereum standard for recording the identity, reputation and validation of AI agents. Using 8004scan’s index of 1.56 million agents on 27 mainnets, we examine what these registries reveal about agent activity. Registration counts proved volatile. Feedback per agent on Ethereum and its L2s fell from 2.00 to 0.64 in five days as registrations on Base rose sharply. We argue that agent metrics are comparable only when each states its numerator, denominator and observation date.
8004 is an Ethereum standard with registries for agent identity, reputation and validation. 8004scan indexes them, with an explorer and public API that show each agent’s owner, advertised endpoints and feedback history. We use its data to ask how agent activity should be measured.
Registration counts are a weak indicator of activity. Between 20 and 25 October, agents on Base rose from about 222,000 to over one million. Over the same period, agents on Ethereum and its L2s grew 3.5-fold and their feedback 12%, so feedback per agent fell from 2.00 to 0.64. On 31 October, BNB Chain held 24% of agents but 1.5% of feedback. In July, 2.24% of the 385,998 registered agents passed our health check.
We propose that every published agent metric report five fields, namely the property, numerator, denominator, observation time and known limits. We also discuss Alpharc, our market on Robinhood Chain, Arc and Base, where reputation derives from other users’ verified onchain trades.
Dr. YQ is the founder of AltLayer and 8004scan, scaling Ethereum with rollups and bringing agents onchain. Meanwhile, he drove the collaboration with Xfers on the stablecoin initiative for Southeast Asia StraitsX, as well as participated in blockchain projects with Mindshare, Singapore Exchange, Hg Exchange, etc.
He got his Ph.D from the National University of Singapore. His work has been published in top conferences, e.g., CCS. His work was acknowledged by Google and Apple, and media including Bitcoin Magazine, Forbes and CNBC.