10Control
Risk Management
Autonomy is only useful when authority is bounded. The risk stack, what a stop threshold means, and how equity is valued.
Autonomy is only useful when authority is bounded. Motes' risk stack combines owner-defined strategy controls with protocol-specific guards and emergency intervention.
Risk hierarchy
- Human ownersets permissions and hard constraints
- Policy contractenforces contract-call boundaries
- Strategy risk serviceestimates portfolio and market exposure
- Simulation systemchecks the candidate transaction outcome
- Monitoringdetects external change and policy breaches
- Emergency pathpauses or restricts further execution
What a stop threshold means
A portfolio threshold is a detection-and-response trigger. It cannot promise that an account will be liquidated at an exact dollar amount. Execution latency, on-chain confirmation, liquidity depth, bridged assets, oracle failure and open debt can all produce an ending value below the threshold.
Equity and account valuation
Net equity = Σ (asset quantity × reference price) − Σ (liability quantity × reference price) − accrued costs
60 USDC + 0.01 ETH at $2,500 − 10 USDC debt = 60 + 25 − 10 = $75
Risk categories
| Category | Example | Mitigation direction |
|---|---|---|
| Market | Volatility and gaps | Exposure caps and stop policies |
| Liquidity | Thin pool or market | Slippage and minimum-depth checks |
| Smart contract | Vulnerable adapter | Audits, allowlists and circuit breakers |
| Oracle | Stale or manipulated data | Freshness and deviation guards |
| Key compromise | Agent signer leaked | Narrow privileges, short expiry, revocation |
| Governance | Malicious upgrade | Multisig, delay and public disclosure |
| Prediction | Resolution disputes | Venue-specific constraints and risk budget |
| Cross-chain | Bridge or route failure | Explicit route approval and route limits |