The Linux Foundation has announced intent to launch the Agent Name Service (ANS), an open standard that gives AI agents verifiable identities by anchoring them to DNS. Originating from an OWASP GenAI Security Project research paper, ANS works similarly to how websites prove identity today — operators demonstrate domain control via ACME/Let's Encrypt, receive certificates, and all status changes are logged in an append-only ledger. A companion standard, DNS-AID (originally from Infoblox), handles agent discovery via DNS records. At least four competing DNS-based agent identity proposals now exist, and the space is crowded with alternatives including Google's A2A protocol, Cisco's AGNTCY, Microsoft's Entra Agent ID, and Okta for AI Agents. Notably absent from ANS are major players like Google, Anthropic, Microsoft, and Amazon, raising questions about fragmentation.
