How does Bittensor work?

Summary

Bittensor is a decentralized network that rewards miners for valuable work, unlike Bitcoin’s mining system. Miners, validators, and subnet owners each have distinct roles within the network, with miners doing the work, validators checking it, and subnet owners controlling it. Bittensor operates using a cryptocurrency called TAO, and its structure fosters competition among miners, validators, and subnet owners. Stakers, akin to shareholders, vote on valuable subnets. The network supports various subnets focused on AI tasks, offering a permissionless, decentralized economy with growing potential in digital business.

Takeaways

• 😀 Bittensor rewards miners for valuable work, similar to Bitcoin's reward system, but with more meaningful tasks than just solving hashes.
• 😀 The Bittensor network consists of decentralized subnets, where each subnet represents a different business offering specific products.
• 😀 Miners, validators, and subnet owners are the key participants in Bittensor's structure: miners do the work, validators check the work, and subnet owners control the work.
• 😀 Validators rank miners based on the quality of their work and pay them TAO based on their ranking.
• 😀 Subnet owners control the network and adjust validator ranking to maintain high-quality work and address issues like bandwidth or cheating.
• 😀 In the Storage subnet, miners store data and are rewarded based on their ability to consistently store and verify it.
• 😀 In the Trading Signals subnet, miners provide real-time trade information, with validators ranking miners based on their profitability and risk management.
• 😀 Subnets in Bittensor mainly focus on AI tasks like inference, training, image generation, and data scraping, and new subnets are continuously being added.
• 😀 Validators also sell access to subnet products to external customers, and only those with substantial TAO can become validators.
• 😀 Bittensor is a competitive, permissionless decentralized economy where miners, validators, subnet owners, and stakers each play a vital role in generating and distributing rewards.

Q & A

What is the main concept behind the Bittensor network?

Bittensor is a decentralized network that rewards miners for performing valuable tasks using a structure similar to Bitcoin’s mining, but instead of solving cryptographic hashes, miners complete real-world work, such as storing data, providing trading signals, or performing AI tasks.

How are miners rewarded in the Bittensor network?

Miners are rewarded in TAO based on the quality of their work, which is ranked by validators. The better the quality and consistency of the miner's work, the higher the rewards they receive.

What roles do validators play in the Bittensor network?

Validators oversee the work done by miners, checking if it meets the required standards. They rank miners based on their work and are responsible for distributing rewards according to those rankings.

How do subnet owners fit into the Bittensor ecosystem?

Subnet owners manage subnets, which are decentralized businesses within Bittensor. They control the work done within the subnet, ensure its efficiency, and make adjustments to the ranking system when needed to improve performance or address issues such as bandwidth or cheaters.

What is the role of stakers in Bittensor?

Stakers are like shareholders in the Bittensor network. They invest by staking TAO tokens and vote for the subnets they believe are the most valuable. Their votes influence the distribution of rewards and the success of specific subnets.

What happens when a validator finds a miner who has lost data or performed poorly?

If a validator finds that a miner has lost data or performed poorly, the validator will lower the miner’s rank, which in turn reduces the miner’s rewards.

How do validators sell access to subnet products?

Validators can sell access to the products of subnets, such as AI models or data storage, to customers outside of the Bittensor network. This adds a commercial layer to the ecosystem, where external clients can purchase the services provided by miners.

How does the ranking system work within a subnet?

The ranking system is determined by validators, who rank miners based on the quality of their work. For example, in a data storage subnet, validators track whether the miners store data correctly. In a trading signals subnet, they evaluate the profitability of miners’ trades.

How are the types of subnets in Bittensor determined?

The types of subnets in Bittensor are continuously expanding and can cover various areas like AI inference, parallelized training, image generation, and data scraping. New subnets are being added regularly, allowing for endless possibilities in terms of the work performed.

What is the significance of TAO in the Bittensor network?

TAO is the native cryptocurrency of the Bittensor network. It is used to reward participants based on their roles and contributions. The more valuable work a miner does, the higher their rank and the greater their TAO rewards. TAO is also central to the staking system, where it is used by stakers to vote for valuable subnets.