After almost ten years in crypto, I’ve watched a whole bunch of initiatives promise to revolutionize all the pieces from banking to artwork. But these revolutions have largely did not materialize.
The difficulty is not know-how. It is that we have been constructing options searching for issues, quite than specializing in fixing actual challenges and delivering actual worth.
Most initiatives create tokens first, utility later. This hypothesis cycle has consumed the business, measuring success by token worth, not precise worth creation. We’re lacking the essential ingredient: a mechanism that rewards constructing helpful issues quite than constructing over-hyped ineffective issues.
What if there was a protocol that flipped this mannequin and initiatives needed to create worth first, then get rewarded? That’s Bittensor.
Bittensor: Rewarding Efficiency Over Mindshare
In some methods Bittensor is just like the Y Combinator of AI. Whereas Y Combinator provides startups cash and mentorship in trade for fairness, Bittensor provides builders incentives by means of token emissions, measures efficiency by means of free market dynamics, and rewards winners with out human gatekeepers.
Consider it as an financial sport the place impartial groups compete to construct invaluable AI providers. Each 12 seconds, the community distributes rewards based mostly purely on usefulness. No advertising budgets. No insiders. No conventional fundraising. No KOLs. Simply efficiency.
The tokenomics are elegant but highly effective. Like Bitcoin, Bittensor’s native TAO has a hard and fast provide cap of 21 million, with 7,200 tokens distributed day by day and provide halving each 4 years. This creates real shortage within the type of rewards that should be earned by means of efficiency quite than hypothesis.
Here is the place it will get much more attention-grabbing: every subnet has its personal “alpha” token that subnet members earn. TAO holders can stake into subnets they imagine in, receiving that subnet’s alpha tokens in return. Increased-performing subnets appeal to extra TAO stake and get a bigger share of day by day emissions. This market-driven funding mechanism signifies that builders receives a commission provided that their service really works and profitable initiatives mechanically get extra sources, whereas additionally rewarding those that staked.
These performance-based rewards imply that anybody can construct however the market decides the winner. And, since its open-source software program, if a undertaking isn’t delivering, others create a greater model.
This makes Bittensor a clear competitors the place all metrics are public. It’s been referred to as “capitalistic Darwinism.” In different phrases, create worth or get out-competed.
Why Bittensor Modifications All the things
Large Tech’s grip on AI is barely getting stronger. Bittensor represents our greatest likelihood at wresting management and anchoring innovation in an open, clear, and democratic surroundings the place worth accrues to probably the most performant improvements, quite than closed techniques that profit from outsized community results.
For the general public, Bittensor represents crypto’s authentic promise: coordinating human effort towards invaluable outcomes with out intermediaries, committees, or gatekeepers. Worth will get created first by means of competitors, then tokens reward the creators; the other of hoping hypothesis drives worth.
For builders, this implies skipping VC pitches, preserving fairness, and getting rewarded instantly for constructing helpful issues. Crucial infrastructure is being constructed by groups spending “$0 on advertising, $0 on trade listings” with pure deal with worth creation. Group governance ensures builders aren’t locked out from decision-making.
For customers, this creates entry to quality-competing providers quite than marketing-budget winners. Customers profit from the upside by supporting one of the best initiatives, whereas neighborhood governance creates robust bonds between creators and shoppers.
For traders, Bittensor affords AI publicity with out having to choose particular person winners. The staking mechanics drive worth accrual into the community quite than siphoning it away. Traders earn upside by supporting top-performing initiatives whereas neighborhood governance provides them a voice quite than forcing them to observe a CEO’s agenda.
The timing could not be higher. With over $55 billion in funding going to the AI sector in Q1 2025, $1.39 billion in funding going to AI brokers prior to now quarter, crypto funding validates what Bittensor has already constructed. Whereas others are nonetheless fundraising, world-class AI groups are already constructing serverless compute (SN64) and decentralized coaching (SN3), in addition to local weather prediction markets (SN18) and algorithmic buying and selling techniques (my undertaking, SN8).
Bittensor is a brand new paradigm for AI innovation as a result of it is a proving-ground that permits one of the best improvements to win with out synthetic obstacles, tilted economics, or incumbent benefits. And, as massively funded firms proceed to dominate AI, it is crucial that we nurture impartial, open ecosystems that reward innovation and grit, clear and clear.