Bittensor and their TAO token
an overview
One of the most interesting projects I came across lately is Bittensor and their #TAO token. Let's dive in.
Bittensor is an open-source protocol that powers a scalable, decentralized neural network. The system is designed to incentivize the production of AI by training models within a blockchain infrastructure and rewarding performance with a custom digital currency.
The network is composed of several thousand nodes, each containing a machine learning model, that are all assigned the task of parsing a massive collection of text data, working collaboratively to extract semantic meaning.
Bittensor's vision is to create a pure market for machine intelligence. Researchers and developers (producers) contribute knowledge to the network in the form of ML models. Enterprises (consumers) can then purchase that knowledge to train their applications.
Bittensor's blockchain is called Nakamoto. The protocol consists of 2 node types: Servers and Validators. The Validators are tasked with βvalidatingβ the performance of the Servers, prompting them for information and assessing them aing to their responses.
Tao is the native token of the protocol. Bittensor βfair launchedβ it (no tokens were pre-mined) in 2021. The supply of Tao is capped at 21,000,000, so, like Bitcoin, it is scarce.
Currently, every 12 seconds (one blockstep) a single Tao is minted into the network, giving allocation a consistency that safeguards against inflation. There will be 64 halving events in total with the first occurring in 2025.
Servers are rewarded with Tao based on their performance in individual instances of knowledge production. Validators, on the other hand, are incentivized to collaborate with highly val Servers in the system.
50% of each Tao minted per block is distributed to the Validators with the other 50% going to the Servers per the consensus mechanism.
Only way to trade Tao at the moment is via https://bittensor.exchange using BTC.
Guide:
Further reading:
How to run your own node:
https://docs.bittensor.com/RunningAMiner.html