Decentralized AI Agents

Dear Colleagues,

The convergence of artificial intelligence and blockchain is giving rise to a new class of autonomous software entities, known as decentralized AI (DeAI) agents. DeAI agents can perceive, reason, transact, and coordinate without centralized intermediaries. Unlike traditional AI systems that depend on centralized cloud infrastructure for inference, data access, and decision-making, DeAI agents leverage distributed ledger technologies, smart contracts, and cryptographic protocols to operate as independent economic and computational actors within open, trustless environments.

This paradigm shift introduces a rich set of research challenges that span multiple layers of the computing stack. On-chain identity and reputation frameworks (e.g., emerging standards such as ERC-8004) must be designed so that agents can establish verifiable credentials and build portable trust across heterogeneous platforms. Machine-to-machine micropayment protocols are needed to support autonomous agent-to-agent commerce at scale. Multi-agent orchestration strategies must ensure that teams of specialized agents can collaborate reliably on complex tasks while maintaining transparency, fairness, and security. At the same time, the autonomy of these agents amplifies existing concerns around smart contract vulnerabilities, adversarial manipulation, algorithmic collusion, and regulatory accountability.

This Special Issue invites original research contributions that advance the design, analysis, deployment, and governance of decentralized AI agents. We seek work that bridges the gap between agentic AI capabilities and decentralized infrastructure, with a focus on novel architectures, trust mechanisms, and real-world service paradigms.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Agent Identity and Trust Infrastructure: On-chain identity registries, decentralized reputation systems, verifiable credentials, and Know-Your-Agent (KYA) frameworks for autonomous AI entities.
• Autonomous Agent Coordination: Multi-agent orchestration protocols, agent-to-agent negotiation, task delegation, and collaborative decision-making on decentralized networks.
• Agent-Native Payment and Economic Models: Machine-to-machine micropayment protocols, tokenized incentive mechanisms, and agent-driven decentralized marketplaces.
• Privacy-Preserving Agent Operations: Federated learning integration, zero-knowledge proofs for agent verification, confidential computing for agentic inference, and secure multi-party computation among agents.
• Security and Adversarial Robustness: Smart contract reliability for agent execution, prompt injection defenses in on-chain agents, adversarial attack detection, and fault-tolerant agent design.
• Cross-Chain and Interoperable Agent Systems: Cross-platform agent migration, interoperability standards for multi-chain agent ecosystems, and decentralized orchestration across heterogeneous ledgers.
• Governance and Accountability: DAO-based agent governance, explainability and auditability of autonomous agent decisions, regulatory compliance frameworks, and ethical design principles for self-sovereign AI agents.
• Application Domains: DeAI agents in decentralized finance (DeFi), supply chain automation, autonomous mobility, smart city infrastructure, healthcare data coordination, and decentralized scientific research.

Dr. Igboanusi Ikechi Saviour
Dr. Simeon Okechukwu Ajakwe
Guest Editors

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