Ethereum Foundation establishes AI team to meet ecosystem demand…Preparing roadmap based on ERC-8004

The Ethereum Foundation has established an artificial intelligence (AI) team and is stepping up its strategy to combine blockchain and AI. This move was not in the existing roadmap but reflects the demands of ecosystem projects.

On the 9th (local time), according to Cointelegraph, Davide Krapis, the Ethereum Foundation AI lead, said, "The ecosystem needs this," and "This change is another step toward the protocol's long-term success." The new team will cover both the protocol and ecosystem areas, and aims to pursue product development and prepare for the influx of traditional AI developers at the same time.

Krapis said, "If we can show traditional AI developers the value in decentralization and in terms of verification and governance, it would be a successful path," and said they plan to publish a detailed roadmap with milestones within this year. He also emphasized, "The ERC-8004 proposal has received significant attention from the start," and "It is already an agenda that can exert a large influence." The proposal is intended to allow AI agents to be discovered, selected, and utilized in a trustworthy manner, and was co-authored by Krapis along with MetaMask AI lead Marco De Rossi and OpenAI's Jordan Ellis.

In the Ethereum ecosystem, AI-related services are already emerging, such as micropayments (including stablecoins), on-chain identity and verification services. The new AI team intends to strengthen clarity and support in these areas. The initial members will be Krapis, an AI product manager, and researchers, who will conduct research in collaboration with the protocol team.

The Ethereum Foundation's move aligns with the flow of blockchain-based AI agents that have been spreading since 2023. These agents can perform financial transactions and various tasks with minimal human intervention. Krapis said, "I do not think this move is late," and "For the past two years, experiments coordinating AI on the protocol have continued and now is an appropriate time."