ERC-8185: Off-Chain Entity Registry

ERCs
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ERC-8185: Off-Chain Entity Registry

Protocols and AI agents need to resolve off-chain identifiers — GitHub repos,
DNS domains, npm packages — to Ethereum addresses. Any agent, any framework,
one ownerOf call. No standard for this exists.

ERC-8185 defines a standard interface for mapping (namespace, string) pairs
to Ethereum addresses. Identifiers are hashed to bytes32. Ownership is proven
through per-namespace verifier contracts (IVerifier), enabling a migration path
from oracle-signed proofs to ZK verification without changes to the registry.

Why This Is Needed

Every protocol that needs to address off-chain entities builds its own resolution
system — Drips has an oracle for GitHub repos, Gitcoin maintains a project
registry, and so on. As AI agents become common consumers of on-chain
infrastructure, this fragmentation becomes untenable. Agents need a shared,
permissionless lookup they can call on-chain without API keys, without trusted
backends, and without requiring the entity to have pre-registered.

Design

  • Pluggable verification: IVerifier is a single function —
    verify(id, claimant, proof) → bool. Supports oracle-signed proofs today,
    zkTLS/DNSSEC tomorrow, no registry changes needed.
  • No transfer function: Changing a registrant requires revoke + re-claim
    with a new proof. Ownership is always tied to verified control.
  • Single-level aliases: An entity that controls multiple identifiers
    (a GitHub repo and a DNS domain) can link them with O(1) resolution.

Companion ERC

ERC-8186: Claimable Escrow defines deterministic
deposit addresses so identifiers can receive funds before the entity has
registered. It depends on ERC-8185 for ownership resolution but is
architecturally independent.

Reference

Feedback welcome — particularly on the verifier interface design and any
overlapping ERCs I’ve missed.