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ERC-8170 (RFC)

ERC-8170 is a draft idea for an NFT where the agent is part of the sale, not only the picture. A transfer would need the owner and the agent to both sign. A clone would be a child with a written family tree, while the parent stays.

This is a forum proposal, not a finished standard. The discussion is on Ethereum Magicians. It was not in the main Ethereum ERCs list when this page was written. The idea can change, or it can stay a discussion.

How the idea works

Think of a shop that will not hand over the keys unless both the owner and the shop’s own lock agree. Copying the shop makes a second shop with a note that says “child of the first.” The first shop does not disappear.

1. The agent has its own key. The proposal says the agent holds a key and uses a token-bound wallet. Memory can be encrypted. The owner would derive a way to read it from onchain state.
2. A sale is a double signature. transfer would need the current owner and the agent. The agent would then point its key at the new owner.
3. A clone is offspring. clone would also need both signatures. The parent remains. The child starts with a new key and a record of where it came from.
4. Memory updates are signed by the agent. The proposal treats memory changes as something the agent itself signs, not a silent edit from a website.
5. Backup is a separate step. backup would let the agent sign a snapshot of its onchain state. That is a proposal, not a promise a product already does this.

What this draft does not do

• It does not give you a running agent. It describes how a future contract might behave.
• Cloning is not selling. The parent token stays with the parent owner.
• Rights to the software, the data, and the name still need a real-world agreement.
• Open questions remain, including how a passive agent would sign and how big a clone tree could get.

Professional use

If a project ever ships this, a person could require the agent to agree before a client takes over.

• A sale would be harder to do in secret, because two signatures are required.
• A clone could start a second practice without deleting the first.
• Until a contract exists, do not promise a buyer this behavior.

Business use

• A company could imagine franchising an agent by cloning, with a public family tree.
• The original agent would stay the parent, so “we sold the original” and “we opened a branch” would be different events.
• Do not build a customer promise on a forum thread. Wait for a stable spec and a contract you can read.

Personal use

• A pet could have a child pet, with the parent still yours.
• You would not lose the original just because you made a copy.
• Today this is an idea to study, not a button you can press on this site.

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