Ethereum Stakes a Claim as AI’s Settlement Layer With dAI Team

Ethereum core developer Davide Crapis unveiled the Ethereum Foundation’s new “dAI Team” on Monday, Sept. 15, positioning the network as a base for AI agents. The effort lands with clear goals and timelines.

Ethereum Foundation Debuts ‘dAI Team’ to Bring AI Onchain

According to the announcement, the group’s mission is to make Ethereum the preferred settlement and coordination layer for artificial intelligence (AI), with two tracks: enabling AI agents to pay and collaborate onchain, and building a decentralized AI stack that resists gatekeepers. The team plans to work alongside Ethereum Foundation (EF) protocol and ecosystem units and fund public goods to speed adoption.

The agenda includes ERC-8004, a proposed standard for proving what an AI agent is and whether it should be trusted, plus work on verifiable, censorship-resistant systems. The philosophy nods to d/acc and Ethereum values—neutrality, openness, auditability—so AI uses public rails while people keep agency.

In practice, that means research into multi-agent coordination, privacy-preserving compute, and verifiable inference, while tying protocol improvements to developer needs. The EF says it wants Ethereum to be “as useful for today’s AI developers as it will be for the sci-fi future,” and to bridge two communities that often work in parallel.

Crapis stated he will lead the team and is hiring globally. Open roles include a Member of AI Staff with a research focus and an AI project manager for coordination, reflecting a lab-style effort that publishes openly, collaborates across disciplines, and prizes standards work to move the ecosystem.

The pitch is simple: the more intelligent AI agents transact, the more they need a neutral base layer for value, identity, and reputation—one not captive to a handful of platforms. Ethereum gets more real-world demand; AI gets credible neutrality and an escape from lock-in.

If the plan sticks, expect more bots signing transactions, more proofs of model actions, and fewer excuses for opacity—call it AI onchain with receipts.