As Bitcoin halves for the fourth time every two years, other decentralized projects have introduced similar supply cut cycles – and Bittensor is nearing its first since its launch in 2021.
Bittensor, an open-source, decentralized machine learning network based on specialized “subnets” that incentivize marketplaces for AI services, is anticipated to see its first halving on or around December 14th. At this point, the issuance of its native token TAO (TAO) will decrease to three,600 per day from the present 7,200.
Grayscale Research analyst William Ogden Moore called the event an “essential milestone within the network’s maturation toward its supply cap of 21 million tokens,” such as Bitcoin’s (BTC) hard limit.
TAO follows a delivery schedule just like Bitcoin. Source: Grayscale Research
Digital asset investors and network participants often view a highly limited supply as a possible catalyst for value: as adoption increases and token demand increases, a finite issuance model could also be more attractive than ready-made tokens or fiat currencies with virtually unlimited supply.
Cointelegraph reported on Bittensor, whose AI computing fund is heavily involved within the Bittensor ecosystem, in May during a conversation with Chris Miglino of DNA Fund.
“The biggest thing we’re working on across the ecosystem is our AI computing fund, where we’re anchored within the TAO ecosystem,” Miglino said.
A glance into Bittensor's subnets
Grayscale describes Bittensor’s subnets as a type of “Y-combiner for decentralized AI networks,” as each operates like a startup constructing a specialized services or products.
CoinGecko currently lists over 100 Bittensor subnets with a combined market cap of over $850 million. Taostats, which tracks the ecosystem more broadly, shows 129 subnets with a complete market cap of about $3 billion.
In each cases, subnet valuations have increased significantly since launch, based on Grayscale Research. The largest include Chutes, which provides serverless computing power for AI models, and Ridges, a subnet focused on crowdsourcing the event of AI agents.
The expansion underscores the growing demand for decentralized AI infrastructure as developers compete to develop and scale latest AI products and applications.
As Miglino told Cointelegraph, decentralized AI could prove to be blockchain's most important use case since Bitcoin, largely driven by this demand.
Bittensor subnets also attract enterprise capital. Inference Labs recently closed a $6.3 million round to support Subnet 2, a Bittensor marketplace for inference verification.
Meanwhile, xTao, an infrastructure developer that creates tools and services for the Bittensor ecosystem, began trading on the TSX Venture Exchange in July as a newly public company.
