# TessIndex: Capability Verified Identity System for the Agent Economy

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.21942 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.21942/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 7 of its 25 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 22 Aug 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 7 of 7)

- [PROV-AGENT: Unified Provenance for Tracking AI Agent Interactions in Agentic Workflows](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.02866/) (2025)
- [Agent Name Service (ANS): A Universal Directory for Secure AI Agent Discovery and Interoperability](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.10609/) (2025)
- [Beyond DNS: Unlocking the Internet of AI Agents via the NANDA Index and Verified AgentFacts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.14263/) (2025)
- [Agentic JWT: A Secure Delegation Protocol for Autonomous AI Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.13597/) (2025)
- [Fetch.ai: An Architecture for Modern Multi-Agent Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.18699/) (2025)
- [VET Your Agent: Towards Host-Independent Autonomy via Verifiable Execution Traces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.15892/) (2025)
- [TessPay: Verify-then-Pay Infrastructure for Trusted Agentic Commerce](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.00213/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Software systems have traditionally been organized around applications where human users act as principal decision-makers. Recent developments in agentic capabilities alter this paradigm: software agents now autonomously translate high-level goals into structured tasks, orchestrating tools, services and sub-agents to execute complex workflows. This evolution gives rise to an agent economy where these autonomous agents capture real economic value. However, the infrastructure required to support the agent economy fails across three critical dimensions: the absence of persistent identity infrastructure prevents systemic accountability in agentic workflows; capability claims remain self-declared not backed by verifiable execution evidence; and the disconnect between creator identities, agent performance, and project value hinders the economic valuation of agents as assets. While existing registries provide naming and discovery, unifying these features around a persistent identity anchor remains largely unaddressed. TessIndex is a capability-verified identity system for agent primitives that utilizes a dual-plane architecture: the blockchain records compact commitments for identity, ownership, and verification, while centralized servers maintain dynamic metadata for discovery, commerce, and reputation. It establishes: persistent identities across agent primitives to enforce systemic accountability in autonomous workflows; a predicate-based verification process replacing self-declared claims with cryptographic capability proof; an identity infrastructure that links agent performance to both project and creator identities while capturing value through tokenization. Ultimately, TessIndex serves as an integrated infrastructure that binds an agent's existence across capabilities, execution, and reputation into a single persistent identity.