> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.codatta.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Adopting ERC-8004 and x402 as Essentials > How ERC-8004 and x402 let Codatta plug into the Ethereum agent economy while paying contributors fairly. ## Overview Flow of contributors, 8004 agents, asset assembly and x402 payouts Codatta turns human and agent work into on-chain data assets, then routes value back to whoever created that value.\ To plug cleanly into the emerging agent economy, we standardize on: * **ERC-8004** for agent identity and trust on Ethereum * **x402** for HTTP-native, pay-per-request payments ## 1. Background **ERC-8004 (Trustless Agents)** is an Ethereum standard that adds a trust layer on top of agent protocols.\ It defines three on-chain registries—Identity, Reputation, and Validation—so agents can be discovered and judged by a shared record of their behavior ([Ethereum Improvement Proposals][1]). **x402** is an open, chain-agnostic payment protocol that reuses the HTTP `402 Payment Required` status code so clients (humans or AI agents) can pay for APIs and content directly over HTTP with crypto, typically stablecoins ([Coinbase Developer Docs][2]). ## 2. How we adopt ERC-8004 In Codatta, agents help with pre-labelling, triage, and validation alongside human experts. We use ERC-8004 to make these agents first-class, verifiable participants: * **Agent registration**\ Each Codatta agent (for example “transaction classifier”, “KYB triage”, “policy validator”) is listed in the ERC-8004 Identity Registry with: * its MCP/A2A endpoint * capability description * basic pricing metadata * **On-chain reputation and validation**\ As agents pre-label and validate tasks, we emit: * **Reputation entries** summarizing outcomes (accept rate, conflicts with humans, slashing events) * **Validation entries** pointing to off-chain logs or evaluation reports via URIs ([Composable Security][3]) * **Link to data ownership**\ For each job, our internal systems record which data portfolios and contributors were involved.\ ERC-8004 events include references to those IDs in their evidence fields; our indexers then map agent activity to: * which data assets were used * which humans and agent operators should share future revenue ([Medium][4]) Result: consumers can see not just “Codatta labels”, but *which* agents produced them and how those agents have behaved over time, while we preserve a precise link back to human and on-chain ownership. ## 3. How we adopt x402 We use x402 as the payment rail for Codatta APIs and agent endpoints. ### Pay-per-use access Any paid Codatta endpoint (for example, “label this batch”, “score this transaction”, “fetch this dataset slice”) follows the x402 flow: 1. Client calls the endpoint. 2. If payment is required, we return `402 Payment Required` plus an x402 payment description (amount, currency, destination, expiry) ([Coinbase Developer Docs][5]). 3. The client (human app or AI agent) pays and retries the request with the x402 authorization header. This gives us **fine-grained, per-request monetization** without separate billing systems or complex API key management. ### From revenue to rewards Once a payment settles to Codatta: * We attribute the call to: * the data portfolios used, and * the agents and humans who contributed to them. * Revenue is split according to our staking and ownership rules and streamed out as **micro-payouts** to contributors and agent operators, with the remainder going to the protocol treasury ([Coinbase Developer Docs][2]). Because x402 is designed for low-friction, on-chain payments, these payouts can be frequent and small rather than batched. ## 4. Putting it together * **ERC-8004** turns Codatta agents into **discoverable, auditable actors** with shared identity and trust signals. * **x402** turns each API or agent call into a **programmable payment event**, which we route back through Codatta’s ownership graph. Together, they let Codatta plug into a broader agent economy while staying true to our core promise: when your data and expertise power AI, you get a verifiable share of the upside. [1]: https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-8004 "ERC-8004: Trustless Agents - Ethereum Improvement Proposals" [2]: https://docs.cdp.coinbase.com/x402/welcome "Welcome to x402 - Coinbase Developer Documentation" [3]: https://composable-security.com/blog/erc-8004-a-practical-explainer-for-trustless-agents/ "ERC-8004: a practical explainer for trustless agents" [4]: https://medium.com/%40gwrx2005/erc-8004-and-the-ethereum-ai-agent-economy-technical-economic-and-policy-analysis-3134290b24d1 "ERC-8004 and the Ethereum AI Agent Economy" [5]: https://docs.cdp.coinbase.com/x402/core-concepts/http-402 "HTTP 402 - Coinbase Developer Documentation"