Definition
Agentic Identity
A cryptographic identity assigned to an AI agent that (a) is distinct from the human who authorized it, (b) is linked to that human authorization through a verifiable chain, (c) is scoped to specific permissions and a bounded time window, and (d) is sealed in a tamper-evident attestation that persists after the agent terminates. Agentic identity solves the firefly problem: AI agents come and go in seconds, but the authorization record must outlive them to enable audit, compliance, and incident response. Jasson Casey's architecture: the authorization chain reads as 'this user on this device with this posture authorizes this agent on this device with this posture, with these permissions, for this period.' Both sides of the chain are cryptographically linked and sealed. Without this, an enterprise buyer asking 'what did your AI agent do and who authorized it?' has no answer.
From the episode “Agentic AI, Deepfakes, and the End of Passwords”Hear it on the podcast1 episode
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