Overview
- Bittensor is described as a marketplace where about 130 subnets sell AI tasks, with TAO serving as the token that lets people use or operate those services.
- Running a subnet, mining, validating, or buying a subnet’s output requires holding TAO, which network participants also stake for rewards paid in subnet “alpha” tokens.
- Subnet owners burn TAO to register and participants pay TAO to claim slots, creating token sinks that can reduce circulating supply as use grows.
- TAO’s supply is capped at 21 million and the network undergoes periodic halvings that cut miner rewards, a design that could tighten supply if activity rises.
- Yahoo Finance frames TAO and subnet alpha tokens as speculative, noting a roughly $2.3 billion market value and warning that most subnets have not proven lasting profits and that alpha tokens behave like leveraged bets with sharp swings.