Pocket Network Foundation, the nonprofit behind one of the largest decentralized node infrastructure networks, has co-authored ERC-8294, a draft extension to ERC-8004 that aims to standardize how AI agents get verified on Ethereum. The proposal defines a smart contract interface called IValidationNetwork, letting any decentralized validator network — permissionless RPC, AVS, TEE consortium, oracle network — plug into ERC-8004's Validation Registry as a trust layer. It's a step toward making AI agent verification interoperable across different validator models, without locking anyone into a single design.
What the standard does
ERC-8294 doesn't prescribe how a network selects validators, rewards them, or slashes bad behavior. It only defines the interface and an EIP-712-based attestation envelope. That means any network that implements the contract can be verified by any client using the same code. The standard is strictly additive — existing single-address validators in ERC-8004 keep working unchanged.
A live reference implementation already runs against Pocket Network's supplier set: about 5,000 supplier nodes operated across multiple independent operators. That's a concrete test of the idea, not just a white paper.
Operator diversity as a policy, not a hope
The notable design choice in ERC-8294 is treating operator diversity as an explicit, enforceable parameter. Callers can specify both the number of validators they want and the minimum number of distinct independent operators those validators must come from. No more trusting that a network is decentralized — you can enforce it at the contract level.
Networks that implement the interface must also publish their operator-identification methodology and concentration analysis alongside their deployed contracts. That transparency requirement is unusual for a standard at this stage.
Who wrote it and where it stands
Besides Pocket Network Foundation's Chris 'Jinx' Jenkins, co-authors include Luis Correa de León of Synaptika, Bryan White from Pocket Network Community Engineering, and Tiago Merlini, who also authored ERC-8299 and ERC-8309. The draft has been submitted to the Ethereum ERCs repository and is under review by the ERC editors. Discussion is open on Ethereum Magicians.
The standard doesn't pick sides — it's designed to work with any decentralized network that can run validators. That's the point. It's an interface play, not a product launch.
The Ethereum ERC editors haven't set a deadline for feedback yet. The discussion on Ethereum Magicians is where the standard will get challenged or refined. Whether it moves forward depends on whether the validator community and AI agent builders see enough value in a common interface to adopt it. Pocket Network Foundation has skin in the game with its live reference implementation, but the standard is designed to outlive any single network.
