The open standard for
AI agent identity

What is AIS-1?

AIS-1 defines an open smart contract standard for a bonded identity pair — a single cryptographic token that permanently links an AI agent's identity to the legal entity or person responsible for it. Neither party can be separated from the other without revoking the bond.

The standard addresses what we call the Wild Agent Problem: the near-total absence of formal identity, legal accountability, and compliance infrastructure for the hundreds of millions of AI agents currently active globally. India's national Doot / Agent One programme — which proposes a personal AI agent for every citizen, bound to their Aadhaar identity — is one of the first national-scale demonstrations of why bonded agent identity matters.

Three tiers. One ladder.

A single mandatory standard would fail — forcing full KYC on a prototype agent achieves nothing. AIS-1 defines three tiers: enter at Basic with no friction, graduate to Verified when commercial stakes require it, achieve Sovereign status when enhanced due diligence and government-attested credentials are required.

One function. Full compliance. Milliseconds.

Any counterparty calls verifyBond(bondId) before transacting with an agent. It returns everything needed for AML/KYC compliance in a single on-chain call.

// Counterparty verification flow — before any agent transaction

const result = await ais1.verifyBond(bondId);

// Returns:
//  valid      bool    — is this bond active and not revoked?
//  tier       uint8   — 0=Basic · 1=Verified · 2=Sovereign
//  sponsorDid string  — DID of the accountable sponsor
//  amlStatus  uint8   — 0=unverified · 1=cleared · 2=suspended

if (result.valid && result.tier >= 1 && result.amlStatus === 1) {
  // Agent is Verified, AML-cleared, accountable
  // Proceed with transaction
} else {
  // Reject — agent not cleared for commerce
}

This is customer due diligence at agent-commerce speeds — performed once by the authorised issuer, readable by every counterparty in milliseconds, for the lifetime of the bond. KYC done once. Compliance everywhere.

From working paper to deployed standard.

Specification and supporting materials.

AIS-1 v0.1 is a draft for public comment.

Feedback is invited from AI agent developers, blockchain engineers, legal and regulatory professionals, enterprise AI deployers, standards organisations and government bodies. The comment period for v0.1 closes 30 June 2026. A revised v0.2 will incorporate substantive feedback.