# Blockchain Empowered Trustworthy Agent Networks: Foundations, Taxonomy, and Future Directions

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.04626 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.04626/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Agent threats, guardrails and governance, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use.
- Builds on 86 of its 124 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 5 Aug 2026.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [Agent threats, guardrails and governance](https://mlsanity.com/agents/agent-threats-guardrails-and-governance/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 86)

- [Proximal Policy Optimization Algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.06347/) (2017)
- [Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.11903/) (2022)
- [Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Knowledge-Intensive NLP Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.11401/) (2020)
- [ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.03629/) (2022)
- [Reflexion: Language Agents with Verbal Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.11366/) (2023)
- [Toolformer: Language Models Can Teach Themselves to Use Tools](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.04761/) (2023)
- [Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.03442/) (2023)
- [Tree of Thoughts: Deliberate Problem Solving with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.10601/) (2023)
- [A Survey on Large Language Model based Autonomous Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.11432/) (2023)
- [ToolLLM: Facilitating Large Language Models to Master 16000+ Real-world APIs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.16789/) (2023)
- [MetaGPT: Meta Programming for A Multi-Agent Collaborative Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.00352/) (2023)
- [Improving Factuality and Reasoning in Language Models through Multiagent Debate](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.14325/) (2023)
- [WebGPT: Browser-assisted question-answering with human feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.09332/) (2021)
- [HuggingGPT: Solving AI Tasks with ChatGPT and its Friends in Hugging Face](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.17580/) (2023)
- [ChatDev: Communicative Agents for Software Development](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.07924/) (2023)
- [Large Language Model based Multi-Agents: A Survey of Progress and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.01680/) (2024)
- [A Survey on the Memory Mechanism of Large Language Model based Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.13501/) (2024)
- [AgentVerse: Facilitating Multi-Agent Collaboration and Exploring Emergent Behaviors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.10848/) (2023)
- [Identifying the Risks of LM Agents with an LM-Emulated Sandbox](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.15817/) (2023)
- [InjecAgent: Benchmarking Indirect Prompt Injections in Tool-Integrated Large Language Model Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.02691/) (2024)
- [AgentPoison: Red-teaming LLM Agents via Poisoning Memory or Knowledge Bases](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.12784/) (2024)
- [StruQ: Defending Against Prompt Injection with Structured Queries](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.06363/) (2024)
- [Agent Security Bench (ASB): Formalizing and Benchmarking Attacks and Defenses in LLM-based Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.02644/) (2024)
- [PoisonedRAG: Knowledge Corruption Attacks to Retrieval-Augmented Generation of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.07867/) (2024)
- [Scaling Large Language Model-based Multi-Agent Collaboration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.07155/) (2024)
- [MultiAgentBench: Evaluating the Collaboration and Competition of LLM agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.01935/) (2025)
- [Prompt Injection Attack to Tool Selection in LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.19793/) (2025)
- [Certifiably Robust RAG against Retrieval Corruption](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.15556/) (2024)
- [Watch Out for Your Agents! Investigating Backdoor Threats to LLM-Based Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.11208/) (2024)
- [AI Agents Under Threat: A Survey of Key Security Challenges and Future Pathways](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.02630/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [SoK: Decentralized Agent Economic Infrastructure](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.01756/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

AI agents are evolving from isolated task executors into networked autonomous entities that can communicate, delegate tasks, invoke tools, access external knowledge, and participate in cross-platform service and economic workflows. This evolution gives rise to open agent networks, where heterogeneous agents owned by different stakeholders interact without naturally shared infrastructures for identity, authorization, auditability, reputation, or settlement. This survey and tutorial article reviews the literature over the period 1980--2026 on the evolution from classical multi-agent systems to open agent networks, with a particular focus on LLM-based autonomous agents, agent interoperability protocols, Internet-of-Agents infrastructures, and blockchain-enabled trust mechanisms. We first review this evolution and show how the trust boundary expands from individual execution to cross-agent, cross-platform, and cross-organizational interaction. We then identify a network-level trust crisis that cannot be fully addressed by single-agent safety mechanisms or closed multi-agent coordination techniques, and develop a five-dimensional taxonomy covering entity and capability trust, authorization and delegation trust, information and provenance trust, coordination and group-robustness trust, and accountability and settlement trust. Based on this taxonomy, we examine how blockchain can provide shared identity, verifiable authorization, tamper-evident provenance, auditable collaboration, incentive alignment, and value settlement for trustworthy agent networks. We further synthesize the mapping between agent-network risks, trust requirements, and blockchain-enabled mechanisms, and clarify the role of blockchain as a shared trust layer rather than a replacement for agent security, semantic verification, privacy protection, or robust reasoning.