The Evolution of Bittensor

The Evolution of Bittensor $TAO:

• Founded in 2021 by Jacob Robert Steeves and Ala Shaabana
• Built as a decentralized AI network Objective: Create an open marketplace for machine intelligence
• Fixed supply of 21 million TAO, similar to Bitcoin

2021–2023: Origins and Development of the Main Network January 2021: Bittensor launches with the Kusanagi network

• Initial mining and validation processes begin, approximately 546K TAO issued November 2021: Nakamoto upgrade replaces Kusanagi March 20, 2023: Finney upgrade officially goes live Performance improved, network becomes a stable foundational layer 2023–2024: Subnetworks and Actual Expansion
• Introduces subnetwork model: independent AI markets within the network Each subnetwork specializes in tasks like language models, data, or computation
• Network can scale up to over 100 subnetworks July 2024: Serious security incident
• Supply chain attack via malicious PyPI package
• About $8 million worth of TAO drained from wallets
• Network switches to “safe mode” to prevent further damage 2025: Token Mechanism Changes and Halving Event
• Taoflow upgrade introduces dynamic emission features
• Rewards distributed based on staking demand across subnetworks December 2025: First halving Emission rate drops from approximately 7,200 TAO/day to around 3,600 TAO/day TAO begins to be more directly compared to Bitcoin 2026: AI Story and Market Breakthrough
• Network expands to about 128 subnetworks
• Leading subnetworks dominate emission and usage
• Subnetwork 3 (Templar) launches Covenant-72B
• One of the largest decentralized language models
• 72 billion parameters trained within the network From a small test network in 2021 to a full-fledged AI economy competing with centralized models. Bitcoin for artificial intelligence.