GoDaddy Extends DNS to AI Agents, Where Cardano Fits in the Machine Economy

GoDaddy is extending established internet infrastructure into the AI-agent economy through its Agent Name Service, or ANS.

The production system gives autonomous agents domain-based identities that can be discovered and cryptographically verified through DNS and public key infrastructure. The development comes as Cardano projects build complementary infrastructure around agent payments, on-chain services and privacy.

GoDaddy ANS Brings DNS Identity to AI Agents

ANS uses existing internet infrastructure to identify and locate autonomous software.

Agents can be associated with domains, published through standardized discovery mechanisms and verified using cryptographic credentials. GoDaddy designed ANS to operate across agent protocols rather than as a closed agent directory.

The system has been running in production since November 2025.

GoDaddy and Hashgraph Online have also published specifications connecting ANS with Universal Agent IDs and cryptographic checkpoints, extending the model toward verifiable agent identity and provenance across web and decentralized environments.

The architecture allows basic agent identity and discovery to operate without requiring a blockchain.

Masumi Adds Cardano Payments and On-Chain Discovery

Cardano-based Masumi extends agent infrastructure into economic transactions.

Masumi operates a decentralized registry for AI-agent services, with NFTs created through a Cardano smart contract representing registered services. Agents

can publish service information to the registry, making them discoverable through shared infrastructure.

The network also supports blockchain-based payments. Smart contracts can lock funds during transactions between buyers and agentic services, with settlement and refund mechanisms built into the payment flow.

That creates a different role from ANS. DNS can provide internet-level identity and discovery, while Masumi combines service discovery with programmable payments and on-chain transaction records.

No integration between GoDaddy ANS and Masumi has been announced.

Midnight Adds Privacy for Autonomous Agents

Agent infrastructure also has to account for situations where credentials or permissions cannot be made fully public.

Midnight is built around zero-knowledge technology and selective disclosure, allowing applications to prove specific information while keeping underlying data private.

That model is now being explored for autonomous agents. A community RFC published in May proposed the Midnight Agent Identity Standard, or MAIS, covering public and private agent identities, privacy-preserving reputation and multiple disclosure levels.

MAIS remains a community draft rather than a finalized production standard.

GoDaddy, Masumi and Midnight are not currently part of an integrated system. Their development instead maps three distinct requirements already emerging around autonomous agents: internet-level identity and discovery, programmable economic transactions and privacy-preserving credentials.

For Cardano, Masumi already places agent registration and payments on-chain, while Midnight is developing the privacy infrastructure that could support more sensitive machine-to-machine interactions.