[Interview] Enso Co-Founders on Building Verifiable Financial Rails for AI Agents
As financial institutions move more capital onchain, the security question is expanding beyond whether a smart contract has been audited. A contract may function exactly as designed while the transaction produces an outcome different from the one a user was quoted or intended to approve. Changes in
Enso's co-founders, Connor Howe and Milos Costantini, spoke about building verifiable financial rails for AI agents in a recent interview with Korea IT Times. As institutions move more capital onto the blockchain, the risk of execution integrity has become as crucial as smart contract security. Howe explained that while a contract may be perfect, a transaction can still cost users more than they anticipated due to execution risks.
He stated that execution integrity is about ensuring the quote provided matches the actual settlement, and that institutions face this risk most acutely when moving large volumes of capital across multiple protocols and blockchains. The primary risk, Howe revealed, is a state change between decision and settlement, which can be caused by factors like stale prices, reordered transactions, or unexpected pool states.
Costantini added that simulation and validation are critical in identifying and addressing these execution risks. Simulation provides a prediction of the outcome against a snapshot, but it must be tied to the conditions of execution, as the blockchain does not remain static. The three most exposed points to quote manipulation, market changes, or transaction tampering are quote generation, the mempool, and the handoff between components.
To combat these risks, Enso has built a simulator that runs before users sign transactions, surfacing the real output amount, price impact, and failing outright quotes. Additionally, validation confirms the transaction matches the simulated intent, while slippage controls act as an enforceable backstop to prevent losses if conditions move against the user.
Real-time verification ties everything together, rechecking the transaction at the final moment to ensure continuity between transaction intent and settlement.
Written by urgent.news from Korea IT Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
