Q1. You’ve moved from leading fintech teams at Alipay UK, Ant Group and Alibaba Cloud to Blockscout. How does your experience in regulated payments shape your strategy for driving institutional adoption of open-source block-explorer tooling?

Institutions adopt technology when it’s reliable, transparent, and able to generate actionable intelligence, not just raw data. In these environments, data lineage, auditability, security and scale are non-negotiable, and that mindset now guides how we evolve Blockscout.

Blockscout is already trusted infrastructure across 3000+ EVM-based chains, and the next phase is turning that infrastructure into intelligent, enterprise-grade tooling. For me, that means embedding AI and structured data capabilities so organisations can access onchain data and act on it in real time.

The challenge is no longer displaying blockchain data but making it meaningful. Bringing a regulated-fintech lens into an open-source project lets us raise the bar on reliability, governance and clarity, without losing the transparency and neutrality that makes Blockscout so valuable to institutions.

Q2. Blockscout outlined an AI-powered roadmap for onchain exploration. Can you walk us through the most impactful AI features you’re prioritising and the practical problems they’ll solve for compliance teams and enterprise developers?

We’re building AI features that solve very specific, very real problems we hear from enterprises. The first thing we released was AI transaction summaries. They break down complex contract interactions into plain-language explanations, which helps a lot if you’re a compliance team trying to understand what actually happened in a swap or a bridge transaction. Instead of piecing it together manually, you get a clear summary you can check against the raw data.

The second area is our Model Context Protocol (MCP), which allows AI agents and enterprise systems to query onchain data in a structured, controlled way. One of the biggest issues for regulated users is that LLMs struggle with noisy data or unstructured scraping. The MCP solves this by routing all AI interactions through Blockscout’s APIs, improving output consistency and making every response auditable and traceable back to a known data source, which is critical for financial institutions.

The third pillar is deeper intelligence for enterprise analytics and compliance, from detecting multichain transactions to identifying standardised behavioural patterns for activities like staking, with support for Travel Rule workflows through clearer visibility into counterparties and fund flows, all leading toward AI models that interpret complex onchain behaviour at scale.

All of this aligns with our philosophy that AI shouldn’t sit on top of blockchain data as an afterthought. It should be embedded in the core of the explorer so institutions and enterprises can move from simply accessing data to understanding and acting on it in real time.

Q3. What technical and product challenges did you face when designing AI that needs to reason about onchain data (noise, scale, provenance), and how do you ensure model outputs are auditable and defensible for regulated users?

The biggest challenge was noise. Explorers are built for humans, not AI, so scraping HTML or guessing SQL queries across dozens of tables leads to inconsistent results. We solved this by preventing the model from touching raw pages or databases at all. Instead, all AI reasoning goes through the MCP, a structured layer that exposes clean, verified data from Blockscout’s APIs.

Scale and provenance were the next hurdles. Blockscout indexes 3000+ EVM chains, so we needed a way for AI to keep track of which chain, which endpoint, and which dataset it was using. MCP solves this by forcing every AI step to be a concrete API call against an official Blockscout instance. That gives us full traceability so that institutions can replay every step if they need to audit a decision.

We also constrain the model so it can’t invent explanations. For transaction summaries, it works within a known set of templates, and if something doesn’t fit, we label it ‘unknown’. On the MCP side, we continuously validate model outputs against onchain data, which serves as the authoritative source. This gives us a clear view of where the system performs reliably and where additional refinement is needed.

Q4. Blockscout announced a strategic collaboration with Alibaba Cloud to unlock AI access to blockchain data across Asia. What specific capabilities or go-to-market motions will that partnership enable for enterprises in the region?

Our partnership with Alibaba Cloud lets us deliver AI-powered blockchain intelligence at scale across Asia. Alibaba Cloud provides the regional infrastructure, and Blockscout provides the structured, verified onchain data and AI tooling that enterprises can integrate directly into their systems.

A core capability is access to Chain-LLMs, which are models trained on multichain transaction data and contract patterns. These enable smarter behaviour recognition, automated monitoring and real-time alerting, which is critical for compliance and operational teams.

The collaboration also improves how enterprises connect their own AI systems to blockchain data. Alibaba Cloud extends our distribution, and with Blockscout’s multichain indexing and the MCP layer, enterprises can plug their own AI systems into clean, verified blockchain data without building an entire data stack themselves.

From a go-to-market perspective, we can jointly offer packaged solutions for compliance, analytics and private deployments. Many enterprises in Asia want AI capabilities but don’t want to manage blockchain infrastructure, so combining Alibaba Cloud’s footprint with Blockscout’s data products makes adoption much simpler.

Q5. With bank-issued settlement assets like J.P. Morgan’s deposit token (JPMD) now live on Base, how do open source explorers meet the risk-management, audit and privacy needs of commercial banks and their clients?

For banks issuing assets on public chains, the first requirement is clear data provenance. Open-source explorers like Blockscout provide full transparency into how data is indexed and displayed, which allows institutions to verify settlement flows independently and rely on a fully auditable codebase.

The second requirement is structured access to data. Blockscout’s APIs, and our structured AI access layer, provide enterprises with clean, verified, chain-specific data, and every analytic or AI step maps back to a reproducible API call. That provides the audit trail compliance teams need for reconciliation and counterparty reviews.

Privacy is also critical. Public chains do not mean exposing internal workflows, and institutions can deploy private Blockscout instances to keep their analysis and queries within their own environment. Because Blockscout is open-source, they control what is indexed, how data is exposed, and who has access.

Open-source explorers meet institutional needs by being transparent, reproducible and fully verifiable. These are key requirements when institutions issue or settle assets on a public chain.

Q6. Transparency is often cited as blockchain’s strength, but institutions worry about privacy and compliance. How does Blockscout balance full public visibility with enterprise requirements for KYC/AML, confidentiality and legal obligations?

Transparency is a core feature of public chains, but that does not mean institutions lose control of privacy. Blockscout’s role is to show exactly what happens onchain using an open-source codebase that anyone can audit. Institutions know precisely what data is visible and how it is indexed, which lets them design privacy-preserving settlement flows with full awareness of what is public and what is not.

For compliance teams, the critical requirement is predictable, verifiable access to data. Blockscout’s APIs give institutions clean, structured transaction and contract metadata that they can feed into their own KYC/AML systems. The explorer does not replace compliance infrastructure, but it gives banks a reliable and reproducible source of truth for onchain activity.

Institutions that need additional confidentiality can run their own private Blockscout instances. A self-hosted deployment keeps all queries, logs and analytics inside their own environment, while still giving them the same transparent view of public chain data. Because Blockscout is open-source, they can control access, customise what is indexed and integrate it with their internal compliance or monitoring systems.

Blockscout balances transparency with confidentiality by making the indexing process open, the data access layer predictable, and the deployment model flexible. Institutions benefit from both a fully public, verifiable record onchain, and the control they need around how that data is consumed, analysed and stored internally.

Q7. As Ethereum’s Fusaka upgrade aims to change data availability and throughput on Dec. 3 materially, what shifts in L2 behaviour and node-operator requirements are you already seeing in Blockscout’s telemetry across chains?

Across the L2 networks we index, we’re seeing signs of preparation for higher data throughput ahead of Fusaka. The most visible shift is in posting patterns. Several rollups are increasing the regularity of state-root submissions and fine-tuning block intervals, which shows up in Blockscout as smoother sequencing and more consistent batch updates.

For node operators, the requirements are becoming clearer too: higher bandwidth, more storage headroom and faster indexing paths, as L2s prepare for larger data availability payloads once Fusaka activates. The trend is incremental rather than disruptive, but it is noticeable across the chains we support.

This suggests an ecosystem getting ready for more capacity and more predictable throughput at the L2 layer, which is exactly what Fusaka is designed to unlock.

Q8. Blockscout is open-source, so what business model and governance mechanisms do you believe make open infrastructure sustainable at scale while remaining neutral and trusted by regulated counterparties?

Sustainable open infrastructure depends on keeping the core simple, transparent and genuinely open. Blockscout follows that approach. The explorer code is public, and anyone can run it or use it in the way they need. Some teams choose to host their own version or ask for extra support, but we treat that separately so the public explorer stays neutral and accessible to everyone.

Neutrality also comes from open development. Because the indexing process, release history and code changes are all visible, institutions and regulators can see how the software works and how updates are made. That level of transparency is important when the explorer is being used to monitor financial activity.

The open-source explorer serves the wider EVM community, and organisations that need more reliability or integration support can get it without changing how the core behaves. This balance keeps Blockscout an open public good, while giving regulated counterparties confidence that the infrastructure they rely on is both neutral and well governed.

Q9. For engineering teams at exchanges, custody providers or banks, what developer workflows and integrations (APIs, alerts, SIEM hooks) are the highest priority, and where do you see the biggest gap today between onchain telemetry and existing enterprise tooling?

Engineering teams need reliable, structured access to onchain data. The highest-value workflows are straightforward: stable APIs for transactions, balances, contract metadata and logs that behave consistently across chains. These endpoints power reconciliation, monitoring and internal user-support tools.

There is also strong demand for better automation. Exchanges and custodians want to trigger internal alerts around specific onchain events, such as large transfers, contract upgrades, unusual address activity, without relying on page scraping or node-level parsing. Using Blockscout’s indexed data through APIs is the simplest way to feed those signals into existing systems.

The biggest gap we see is integration. Many enterprise teams still use manual polling or custom scripts because connecting blockchain telemetry into SIEMs or compliance platforms is not yet seamless. This is where structured access layers like MCP help by giving internal tools a predictable interface for pulling verified onchain data.

Q10. As multichain activity grows, how should block explorers evolve to provide consistent, comparable analytics across EVM chains, and what role can standardisation (APIs, telemetry formats) play in that future?

A lot of the complexity in multichain analytics comes from the fact that every network exposes data slightly differently. One of Blockscout’s advantages is that every EVM network we index uses the same underlying schema and API structure, which means transactions, logs and contract metadata are exposed in the same way regardless of the chain. That gives developers a stable baseline when they are comparing activity across networks.

The next step is standardisation. Institutional users want reliable telemetry formats and predictable APIs so they do not need to rebuild their tooling for every network they support. This is why we focus on clear, documented endpoints and on structured access layers like MCP, which give developers a single interface for querying onchain data across many chains.

As multichain activity grows, explorers will need to move beyond simply displaying data and start offering cross-network patterns, behaviour insights and comparable metrics. Standardisation makes that possible. It creates a common language for analytics, and it lets enterprises integrate blockchain data into their monitoring and risk systems without needing bespoke processes for each chain.

Q11. Looking 18–24 months out, what would success look like for Blockscout in terms of institutional adoption, product milestones, and the role of AI in making public chain data genuinely actionable for mainstream financial services?

Looking ahead, success for Blockscout means becoming the data layer that institutions can rely on. That includes more institutions and enterprises using our APIs, integrating our indexing into their internal systems, or running their own private instances when they need deeper control and auditability.

On the product side, we want the explorer to become clearer and more informative without adding unnecessary complexity. AI should help by reducing the amount of raw data teams need to interpret, offering straightforward explanations of activity and making it easier to understand how patterns differ from one chain to another.

For the broader financial sector, the real measure of progress is whether public blockchain data becomes something teams can use in routine operations such as monitoring, reconciliation, risk checks, and user support. If Blockscout can make that data easier to interpret and integrate, then we’ll have moved from a block explorer to critical infrastructure embedded across the financial services industry.

Short Form Bio

Eva Zhang, Chief Executive Officer, Blockscout

Eva Zhang is the CEO of Blockscout, the leading open-source block explorer for EVM chains, where she is driving its evolution from infrastructure to AI-powered intelligence for enterprises across the multichain ecosystem. She previously served as CEO of Alipay UK, spent five years at Ant Group, and led international growth as Director of Business Development at Alibaba Cloud. 

Named to the UK Women in FinTech Powerlist 2024, Eva is a recognised voice on fintech, payments, AI, and Web3, speaking at Money20/20 and London Tech Week. She holds a Master’s in Engineering and a Dual MBA from LBS and Columbia.

About Blockscout 

Blockscout is the #1 open-source block explorer available for all EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) based chains, live on 3000+ networks, including Ethereum, Arbitrum, as well as major Superchain networks such as OP Mainnet, Base, Unichain, Ink Chain, and Sony’s Soneium.  Blockscout features a robust interface for searching blocks, transactions, accounts, and tokens, and provides tooling for developers including smart contract verification and access to a suite of optimized APIs. The Dappscout marketplace built into Blockscout offers a secure environment for decentralized app discovery, exploration, and interaction.