Decentralized Multi-Agent System with Trust-Aware Communication
On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Agent threats, guardrails and governance
Abstract (arXiv)
The emergence of Large Language Models (LLMs) is rapidly accelerating the development of autonomous multi-agent systems (MAS), paving the way for the Internet of Agents. However, traditional centralized MAS architectures present significant challenges, including single points of failure, vulnerability to censorship, inherent scalability limitations, and critical trust issues. We propose a novel Decentralized Multi-Agent System (DMAS) architecture designed to overcome these fundamental problems by enabling trust-aware, scalable, and censorship-resistant interactions among autonomous agents. Our DMAS features a decentralized agent runtime underpinned by a blockchain-based architecture. We formalize a trust-aware communication protocol that leverages cryptographic primitives and on-chain operations to provide security properties: verifiable interaction cycles, communication integrity, authenticity, non-repudiation, and conditional confidentiality, which we further substantiate through a comprehensive security analysis. Our performance analysis validates the DMAS as a scalable and efficient solution for building trustworthy multi-agent systems.
Key facts. Cited by 7 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Agent threats, guardrails and governance, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 16 of its 35 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 2 Dec 2025.
Builds on
16 of 35 references.
References · 16
- 2023LLaMA: Open and Efficient Foundation Language Modelscited by 13,958
- 2022ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Modelscited by 8,355
- 2023A Survey of Large Language Modelscited by 2,537
- 2023AutoGen: Enabling Next-Gen LLM Applications via Multi-Agent Conversationcited by 1,906
- 2022Large Language Models Encode Clinical Knowledgecited by 1,807
- 2023MetaGPT: Meta Programming for A Multi-Agent Collaborative Frameworkcited by 1,761
- 2023A Survey on Evaluation of Large Language Modelscited by 1,227
- 2024Large Language Model based Multi-Agents: A Survey of Progress and Challengescited by 752
- 2022Large Language Models Can Self-Improvecited by 656
- 2023A Survey on Large Language Models for Recommendationcited by 378
- 2023Using an LLM to Help With Code Understandingcited by 222
- 2024Security and Privacy Challenges of Large Language Models: A Surveycited by 179
4 more
- 2024LLM Multi-Agent Systems: Challenges and Open Problemscited by 119
- 2024Internet of Agents: Weaving a Web of Heterogeneous Agents for Collaborative Intelligencecited by 80
- 2022Self-Sovereign Identity as a Service: Architecture in Practicecited by 2
- 2023Leveraging Self-Sovereign Identity in Decentralized Data Aggregationcited by 1
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2025: 1; 2026: 6.
7 papers.
- 2025Insured Agents: A Decentralized Trust Insurance Mechanism for Agentic Economycited by 4
- 2026OpenKedge: Governing Agentic Mutation with Execution-Bound Safety and Evidence Chainscited by 4
- 2026Cost and Accuracy of Long-Term Memory in Distributed Multi-Agent Systems Based on Large Language Modelscited by 2
- 2026Blockchain Empowered Trustworthy Agent Networks: Foundations, Taxonomy, and Future Directionscited by 1
- 2026SoK: When Safe Agents Fail Together: The Security of Multi Agent LLM Systemscited by 1
- 2026Agent-Centric Social Trajectory Prediction: A Free Energy Principle Perspectivecited by 0
- 2026DART: A DAG-Based Reputation and Incentive Framework via Blockchain-Enabled Governance for Trustworthy LLM Multi-Agent Collaborationcited by 0
- 2026DART: A DAG-Based Reputation and Incentive Framework via Blockchain-Enabled Governance for Trustworthy LLM Multi-Agent Collaboration1 Sep 2026
- 2026SoK: When Safe Agents Fail Together: The Security of Multi Agent LLM Systems1 Sep 2026
- 2026Blockchain Empowered Trustworthy Agent Networks: Foundations, Taxonomy, and Future Directions5 Aug 2026
- 2026Agent-Centric Social Trajectory Prediction: A Free Energy Principle Perspective25 May 2026
- 2026OpenKedge: Governing Agentic Mutation with Execution-Bound Safety and Evidence Chains7 Apr 2026
- 2026Cost and Accuracy of Long-Term Memory in Distributed Multi-Agent Systems Based on Large Language Models12 Jan 2026
- 2025Insured Agents: A Decentralized Trust Insurance Mechanism for Agentic Economy9 Dec 2025
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- 2025Towards Transparent and Incentive-Compatible Collaboration in Decentralized LLM Multi-Agent Systems: A Blockchain-Driven Approach
- 2025Enabling Regulatory Multi-Agent Collaboration: Architecture, Challenges, and Solutions
- 2025Byzantine-Robust Decentralized Coordination of LLM Agents
- 2025DAO-Agent: Zero Knowledge-Verified Incentives for Decentralized Multi-Agent Coordination
- 2025Seven Security Challenges in Cross-domain Multi-agent LLM Systems
- 2026Dynamic Trust-Aware Sparse Communication Topology for LLM-Based Multi-Agent Consensus