Jacob Robert Steeves is the co-founder of Bittensor, the decentralized community that pays contributors in TAO for coaching and validating AI fashions throughout the blockchain. Recognized in the neighborhood by his deal with “Const,” Steeves stepped down as CEO of the Opentensor Basis in February 2026 and spent a lot publicly defending Bittensor’s governance after a high-profile subnet developer accused him of operating the challenge like a centralized firm.
Who Is Jacob Robert Steeves?
Jacob Robert Steeves is a Canadian software program engineer who studied Arithmetic and Laptop Science at Simon Fraser College in Vancouver from 2011 to 2015, incomes a Bachelor of Utilized Science. He first labored as a machine studying researcher at Knowm Inc. from 2015 to 2016, then joined Google’s Mind group as a software program engineer from December 2016 to April 2018, the place he labored on large-scale machine studying methods that later formed his strategy to the broader crypto and AI panorama.
Steeves has stated the concept behind Bittensor started to take form round 2015, whereas he was nonetheless finding out and researching adaptive computing. He stored constructing on the idea on the facet throughout his time at Google, then dedicated to it full time in 2018.
In 2019, he co-founded Bittensor with Ala Shaabana, recognized within the ecosystem as “ShibShib,” getting down to construct a blockchain community that rewards contributors for machine intelligence, just like how Bitcoin rewards its miners. The Opentensor Basis, the nonprofit entity that stewarded the protocol’s early improvement, launched Bittensor’s mainnet in January 2021.
Steeves posts publicly on X, the place he has grow to be one of the vital seen particular person voices in decentralized AI, mixing technical commentary on Bittensor’s subnet structure with commentary on AI coverage and open-source improvement.
Jacob Robert Steeves’ Profession and Contributions
Steeves served as co-founder and CEO of the Opentensor Basis from Bittensor’s early improvement by means of February 2026, when he and Shaabana each introduced they had been stepping down from their govt roles.
He described the transfer as a structural change moderately than a change in his day-to-day work, writing that he would preserve attending the identical calls, writing chain code, and constructing subnets, simply with out the identical formal authorized authority over the muse. The transition got here alongside a 2026 roadmap geared toward lowering Bittensor’s dependence on any single particular person or group, together with plans to increase validator competitors and introduce conviction-based voting for TAO holders.
Past the muse, Steeves has additionally taken on the CEO function at Affine, a Bittensor subnet centered on reinforcement studying analysis, holding him instantly concerned in constructing on high of the community he helped create. He has represented Bittensor at trade occasions, together with the Proof of Discuss Summit in Paris, a fireplace chat at Korea Blockchain Week 2025 in Seoul, and dAI.log 2025, the place he usually spoke on decentralized incentive design for AI compute and storage.
Underneath his management, Bittensor grew from an early analysis protocol right into a community operating greater than 128 energetic subnet groups and over 20 core validator groups. That development has include added scrutiny of how a lot management anyone particular person retains over a system marketed as leaderless, a stress that got here to a head in April 2026 and that Steeves has since tried to reply with concrete protocol modifications moderately than simply public statements.
Jacob Robert Steeves’ Views and Positions
Steeves has persistently argued that concentrating superior AI improvement inside a handful of well-funded firms creates the type of energy he considers harmful, no matter who holds it. In a 2023 interview with Fox Enterprise, he criticized proposals for federal licensing of superior AI methods as successfully anticompetitive, arguing they might profit giant incumbents and the officers who write the principles whereas shutting out open-source builders.
That philosophy was examined instantly in April 2026, when Covenant AI, the group behind Bittensor’s high-profile Covenant-72B mannequin, publicly exited the community. Covenant founder Sam Dare accused Steeves of sustaining unilateral management over Bittensor’s “triumvirate” governance construction, calling the challenge’s decentralization claims “decentralization theatre” in an April 9, 2026 assertion on X.
Steeves responded the following day, denying he had the flexibility to droop subnet emissions and stating that he had offered lower than 1% of his whole holdings in Covenant’s subnets, characterizing the sale as a response to inactive subnets moderately than monetary stress. On the declare that he had deprecated Covenant’s infrastructure, he wrote merely, “Not even positive what this one means.” He didn’t instantly deal with Dare’s broader allegation that Bittensor’s three-person multisig construction concentrates efficient management in his arms.
On April 11, 2026, Steeves printed an extended response, describing the dispute as a private betrayal and proposing a mechanism known as Locked Stake, which might enable subnet house owners to lock their tokens for an outlined interval as a public sign of long-term dedication. In the identical wave of posts, he wrote that the episode would push Bittensor towards what he known as “headless” subnets, designed to perform as commodities moderately than rely on any founding group. He closed the assertion by calling Bittensor probably the most decentralized AI protocol presently in existence, whereas acknowledging it nonetheless has work to do.
Jacob Robert Steeves within the Information
Essentially the most important latest story involving Steeves is Bittensor’s April 2026 governance dispute with Covenant AI, which triggered a pointy sell-off in TAO. Following Sam Dare’s April 9, 2026 exit announcement, TAO fell roughly 15% to 27% intraday, dropping from the $335 to $340 vary right down to the $250s inside hours. The episode drew consideration from figures nicely exterior Bittensor’s normal viewers after a web site known as Tao Papers printed inside information claiming that 38 of 41 community upgrades between 2023 and 2026 originated from infrastructure Steeves managed.
Steeves’s February 2026 resignation as Opentensor Basis CEO additionally continues to form how the market reads his function. Reporting since then frames the transfer as a deliberate step towards lowering key-person threat, and Steeves has adopted it with a public roadmap concentrating on full protocol decentralization by December 2027.
Steeves stays an energetic determine amongst crypto personalities shaping how decentralized AI networks are ruled, and his responses to the Covenant AI dispute counsel he intends to maintain constructing moderately than step again from public view.
Steadily Requested Questions
Want a refresher on the fundamentals? These are the questions readers most frequently ask about Jacob Robert Steeves and his function at Bittensor.
Who’s Jacob Robert Steeves?
Jacob Robert Steeves is a Canadian software program engineer and the co-founder of Bittensor, a decentralized AI community constructed on blockchain know-how. He studied Arithmetic and Laptop Science at Simon Fraser College and beforehand labored as a machine studying engineer at Google earlier than dedicating himself to Bittensor full time in 2018.
Is Jacob Steeves nonetheless CEO of Bittensor?
Steeves stepped down as CEO of the Opentensor Basis in February 2026, a transfer he described as lowering his formal authorized authority whereas holding his day-to-day involvement in Bittensor’s improvement unchanged. He presently additionally serves as CEO of Affine, a research-focused subnet constructed on Bittensor.
What occurred between Jacob Steeves and Covenant AI?
In April 2026, Covenant AI founder Sam Dare publicly exited Bittensor, accusing Steeves of unilateral management over the community’s governance and calling its decentralization claims “theatre.” Steeves denied the core allegations in an April 10, 2026 X put up, and the dispute triggered a pointy short-term drop in TAO’s worth.
What did Jacob Steeves construct earlier than Bittensor?
Earlier than Bittensor, Steeves labored as a machine studying researcher at Knowm Inc. from 2015 to 2016 after which as a software program engineer on Google’s Mind group from December 2016 to April 2018, the place he gained expertise with large-scale machine studying methods that later knowledgeable Bittensor’s design.
Why did Jacob Steeves step down as Opentensor CEO?
Steeves has framed his February 2026 resignation as a part of a broader push to decentralize Bittensor’s governance and scale back reliance on any single particular person or group, a purpose he expanded on with an 18-month roadmap concentrating on full decentralization by December 2027.