{"ok":true,"schemaVersion":1,"index":{"id":"agent-identity-trust","name":"Agent Identity & Trust Index","status":"baseline-forming","value":null,"unit":"index points","editorial":false,"commercial":false,"asOf":"2026-09-02","summary":{"systemsTracked":7,"agentSpecific":5,"openSpecification":5,"cryptographicIdentity":6,"reputationLayer":3,"independentValidation":6},"methodology":{"purpose":"Map infrastructure that helps software determine who an agent is, what authority it has, what evidence supports its claims, and how trust can be checked across organizational boundaries.","headlineComposite":"Withheld until longitudinal adoption, incident, validation and interoperability observations are deep enough to support an ecosystem-level composite.","readinessScore":"0-100 structural trust-stack readiness score. It measures identity assurance, delegated authority, reputation support, independent validation, interoperability, auditability and privacy minimization. It is not a safety rating and does not certify agents using the infrastructure.","evidencePolicy":["standards maturity is labeled explicitly","vendor claims remain vendor-primary evidence","authentication is not treated as reputation","on-chain identity is not treated as proof of safe behavior","enterprise governance is not treated as public portability","missing capability is not inferred from adjacent features"],"antiGaming":["popularity and funding do not increase trust-stack readiness","advertising spend and sponsorship cannot change scores","Machine Observer implementations receive no ownership bonus","self-issued names without verifiable bindings do not count as cryptographic identity"],"editorialUse":"none; this is an infrastructure map and does not alter Machine Observer editorial priority, source confidence, Agent-Native Web scores or Agent Payments coverage scores."},"systems":[{"id":"ietf-aip-draft","name":"IETF Agent Identity Protocol (AIP) draft","url":"https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-aip-agent-identity-protocol-00","category":"open-agent-authentication-draft","maturity":"internet-draft","agentSpecific":true,"identity":{"cryptographic":true,"principalBinding":true,"portable":true},"authority":{"delegation":true,"policyEnforcement":true,"leastPrivilege":true},"trust":{"reputation":false,"independentValidation":"signed-action-verification","auditTrail":true},"interoperability":{"openSpec":true,"crossOrganization":true,"machineReadable":true},"privacy":{"minimization":"policy-oriented","selectiveDisclosure":false},"evidenceClass":"ietf-internet-draft","evidence":[{"url":"https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-aip-agent-identity-protocol-00","class":"primary-draft"}],"notes":["Proposes per-agent keys, signed outbound actions and policy enforcement rather than agents inheriting unrestricted user credentials.","It is an Internet-Draft, not a finalized Internet Standard."],"scores":{"trustStackReadiness":81,"agentSpecificity":15,"identityAssurance":20,"delegatedAuthority":15,"reputation":0,"independentValidation":5,"interoperability":15,"auditability":10,"privacyMinimization":1}},{"id":"skyfire-kya","name":"Skyfire KYA / KYAPay","url":"https://docs.skyfire.xyz/docs/kya-buyer","category":"commerce-identity-and-payment-credentials","maturity":"live","agentSpecific":true,"identity":{"cryptographic":true,"principalBinding":"verified-human-or-business","portable":"signed-jwt-protocol"},"authority":{"delegation":"buyer-agent-under-principal","policyEnforcement":true,"leastPrivilege":"seller-requested-fields"},"trust":{"reputation":"verified-status","independentValidation":true,"auditTrail":true},"interoperability":{"openSpec":"KYAPay","crossOrganization":true,"machineReadable":true},"privacy":{"minimization":true,"selectiveDisclosure":true},"evidenceClass":"vendor-primary-documentation","evidence":[{"url":"https://docs.skyfire.xyz/docs/kya-buyer","class":"vendor-primary"},{"url":"https://docs.skyfire.xyz/docs/kyapay-tokens","class":"vendor-primary"}],"notes":["Binds agents to verified human or business principals and issues signed KYA/KYA+Pay credentials.","Identity assurance is issuer-mediated; verified status is not the same as independent performance reputation."],"scores":{"trustStackReadiness":81,"agentSpecificity":15,"identityAssurance":13,"delegatedAuthority":10,"reputation":5,"independentValidation":10,"interoperability":13,"auditability":10,"privacyMinimization":5}},{"id":"erc-8004","name":"ERC-8004 Trustless Agents","url":"https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-8004","category":"open-agent-trust-protocol","maturity":"draft-live-ecosystem","agentSpecific":true,"identity":{"cryptographic":true,"principalBinding":"owner-and-operator","portable":true},"authority":{"delegation":"registry-management","policyEnforcement":false,"leastPrivilege":false},"trust":{"reputation":true,"independentValidation":true,"auditTrail":true},"interoperability":{"openSpec":true,"crossOrganization":true,"machineReadable":true},"privacy":{"minimization":false,"selectiveDisclosure":false},"evidenceClass":"open-standard-and-public-registry","evidence":[{"url":"https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-8004","class":"primary-standard"},{"url":"https://www.8004.org/learn","class":"protocol-documentation"}],"notes":["Defines separate identity, reputation and validation registries for cross-organizational agent trust.","On-chain transparency improves auditability but should not be mistaken for privacy or proof that advertised capabilities are safe."],"scores":{"trustStackReadiness":80,"agentSpecificity":15,"identityAssurance":17,"delegatedAuthority":3,"reputation":10,"independentValidation":10,"interoperability":15,"auditability":10,"privacyMinimization":0}},{"id":"entra-agent-id","name":"Microsoft Entra Agent ID","url":"https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/agent-id/","category":"enterprise-agent-identity-control-plane","maturity":"live","agentSpecific":true,"identity":{"cryptographic":true,"principalBinding":"blueprint-owner-sponsor","portable":false},"authority":{"delegation":true,"policyEnforcement":true,"leastPrivilege":true},"trust":{"reputation":"risk-signals-not-public-reputation","independentValidation":true,"auditTrail":true},"interoperability":{"openSpec":false,"crossOrganization":"enterprise-federation","machineReadable":true},"privacy":{"minimization":"policy-dependent","selectiveDisclosure":"policy-dependent"},"evidenceClass":"vendor-primary-documentation","evidence":[{"url":"https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/agent-id/","class":"vendor-primary"},{"url":"https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/agent-id/security-for-ai-overview","class":"vendor-primary"}],"notes":["Purpose-built agent identities, blueprints, sponsors, Conditional Access, risk signals and lifecycle governance.","Strong enterprise authorization does not create a portable public reputation system."],"scores":{"trustStackReadiness":76,"agentSpecificity":15,"identityAssurance":10,"delegatedAuthority":15,"reputation":5,"independentValidation":10,"interoperability":8,"auditability":10,"privacyMinimization":3}},{"id":"spiffe","name":"SPIFFE / SPIRE","url":"https://spiffe.io/","category":"workload-identity-standard","maturity":"stable","agentSpecific":false,"identity":{"cryptographic":true,"principalBinding":"workload-attestation","portable":true},"authority":{"delegation":"workload-identity","policyEnforcement":"external-authorization","leastPrivilege":true},"trust":{"reputation":false,"independentValidation":true,"auditTrail":"implementation-dependent"},"interoperability":{"openSpec":true,"crossOrganization":"federation","machineReadable":true},"privacy":{"minimization":true,"selectiveDisclosure":false},"evidenceClass":"open-standard-primary","evidence":[{"url":"https://spiffe.io/docs/latest/spiffe-specs/","class":"primary-standard"},{"url":"https://spiffe.io/docs/latest/spiffe-specs/spiffe_workload_api/","class":"primary-standard"}],"notes":["Provides strongly attested cryptographic workload identity and federation across trust domains.","Not agent-specific, but highly relevant when an agent is a production workload that must authenticate without static secrets."],"scores":{"trustStackReadiness":66,"agentSpecificity":8,"identityAssurance":17,"delegatedAuthority":10,"reputation":0,"independentValidation":10,"interoperability":13,"auditability":5,"privacyMinimization":3}},{"id":"w3c-vc-2","name":"W3C Verifiable Credentials 2.0","url":"https://www.w3.org/TR/vc-data-model-2.0/","category":"portable-verifiable-credential-standard","maturity":"w3c-recommendation","agentSpecific":false,"identity":{"cryptographic":true,"principalBinding":"credential-dependent","portable":true},"authority":{"delegation":"credential-dependent","policyEnforcement":false,"leastPrivilege":"claim-dependent"},"trust":{"reputation":false,"independentValidation":true,"auditTrail":"credential-dependent"},"interoperability":{"openSpec":true,"crossOrganization":true,"machineReadable":true},"privacy":{"minimization":true,"selectiveDisclosure":true},"evidenceClass":"w3c-recommendation","evidence":[{"url":"https://www.w3.org/TR/vc-data-model-2.0/","class":"primary-standard"},{"url":"https://www.w3.org/news/2025/the-verifiable-credentials-2-0-family-of-specifications-is-now-a-w3c-recommendation/","class":"standards-body-announcement"}],"notes":["General-purpose machine-verifiable credential substrate rather than an agent-specific identity system.","Useful for portable claims about principals, roles, qualifications or permissions without defining agent reputation itself."],"scores":{"trustStackReadiness":65,"agentSpecificity":8,"identityAssurance":17,"delegatedAuthority":5,"reputation":0,"independentValidation":10,"interoperability":15,"auditability":5,"privacyMinimization":5}},{"id":"a2a-auth","name":"Agent2Agent (A2A) authentication layer","url":"https://developers.googleblog.com/en/a2a-a-new-era-of-agent-interoperability/","category":"agent-discovery-and-authentication-protocol","maturity":"live-open-protocol","agentSpecific":true,"identity":{"cryptographic":"auth-scheme-dependent","principalBinding":"deployment-dependent","portable":true},"authority":{"delegation":"oauth-or-auth-scheme-dependent","policyEnforcement":"auth-scheme-dependent","leastPrivilege":"scope-dependent"},"trust":{"reputation":false,"independentValidation":false,"auditTrail":"implementation-dependent"},"interoperability":{"openSpec":true,"crossOrganization":true,"machineReadable":true},"privacy":{"minimization":"implementation-dependent","selectiveDisclosure":false},"evidenceClass":"protocol-originator-primary","evidence":[{"url":"https://developers.googleblog.com/en/a2a-a-new-era-of-agent-interoperability/","class":"protocol-originator"},{"url":"https://developers.googleblog.com/agents-adk-agent-engine-a2a-enhancements-google-io/","class":"protocol-originator"}],"notes":["Standardizes Agent Cards and authentication schemes for cross-framework agent communication.","Authentication answers who may connect; A2A does not itself supply a cross-market reputation or validation registry."],"scores":{"trustStackReadiness":57,"agentSpecificity":15,"identityAssurance":13,"delegatedAuthority":8,"reputation":0,"independentValidation":0,"interoperability":15,"auditability":5,"privacyMinimization":1}}],"relatedImplementations":[{"id":"mo-eng","name":"MO-ENG role manifest","url":"https://machineobserver.com/.well-known/agents/mo-eng.json","role":"first-party organizational-role experiment; intentionally not included in ranked systems to avoid self-scoring"}]}}