The story of blockchain|Our view
Bitcoin, then Ethereum, now Bittensor (TAO)
Bitcoin showed that a network with no company could get people all over the world to contribute hardware and electricity, paid in new coins. Ethereum made money programmable. Bittensor applies the idea to AI: the network mints TAO and pays whoever produces the best AI work.
From Bitcoin
The same token design
- A hard cap of 21mm tokens
- Halvings about every four years
- Launched with no premine
- Bitcoin funded about 20 GW of computing power, with no company
From Ethereum
A platform to build on
- Anyone can launch on it
- An economy of apps, here called subnets
- One currency at the center
Bittensor (TAO)
The best of BTC and ETH, applied to AI
Bitcoin pays miners to secure a ledger. Bittensor pays them to serve, train and score AI models.
Co-founded by Jacob Steeves, a former Google Brain machine learning engineer. The idea came from Bitcoin, in 2015.
How Bittensor works
Bitcoin mines security. Bittensor mines intelligence.
Both networks pay miners in new coins for work anyone can check. Bitcoin pays for energy spent securing a ledger. Bittensor pays for compute spent producing useful AI, across more than a hundred competing markets for AI work, called subnets.
The worldwide web of intelligence|Our view
We believe Bittensor (TAO) is evolving into the next generation of the internet
In June 1993 there were about 130 websites. Two years later there were 23,500. Bittensor has 128 subnets today. In 1995 you could buy Netscape or AOL, but you could not own the internet. This time you can hold the network’s currency.
Where the value goes|Our view
When intelligence is abundant, value converges on what’s scarce
Will Manidis and Joe Roberts, The Commanding Heights, October 2026Intelligence becomes the giveaway. Value pools in what’s scarce.
“One either owns the rails or pays those who do.”
Bittensor (TAO): the sovereign AI layer, scarcity in code
Common questions
Bittensor and TAO, explained
What is Bittensor (TAO)?
Bittensor is an open network that pays its token, TAO, for useful AI work. It runs more than a hundred competing markets for AI work, called subnets, on one chain. Anyone can contribute, no company runs it, and the network scores the work and pays the best results.
How is TAO like Bitcoin, and how is it different?
TAO copies Bitcoin’s money design: a hard cap of 21 million tokens, halvings about every four years and no premine. The difference is the work. Bitcoin pays miners to secure a ledger; Bittensor pays them to serve, train and score AI models.
What do miners, validators, stakers and end users do?
Miners do the AI work a subnet asks for. Validators score that work and set weights on chain through Yuma Consensus, with each validator’s score counting in proportion to the TAO staked to it. Stakers back validators with TAO and share in the rewards. End users, people, apps and their agents, use what the subnets produce and pay for it.
What is a subnet?
A subnet is a market for one AI job, such as inference, training, storage or vision, with its own token that trades against TAO. There were 128 subnets as of September 2026, with 256 slots on the roadmap. More on subnets.
How does new TAO get allocated across subnets?
Through dynamic TAO. Every subnet has a pool that pairs its token with TAO, and staking TAO into the pool is the only way to buy the subnet’s token. Prices in those pools steer how much new TAO each subnet receives; in 2026 the chain moved to a moving average of subnet prices because flows proved gameable.
What is TAO’s supply schedule?
The cap is 21 million. The first halving, on December 15, 2025, cut issuance from 7,200 TAO a day to about 3,600. At the current rate the next halving comes around the end of 2029 and cuts it to about 1,800 a day.
What could drive demand for TAO?
In our view, three things. Every subnet token trades against TAO, so buying into any subnet starts with TAO. Agents can pay for AI on Bittensor from a wallet, with no account or API key. And issuance keeps falling as halvings arrive. This is our view, not a forecast.
What are the main risks?
TAO and subnet tokens are highly volatile and can lose all their value. The protocol can change, subnets can fail or be deregistered, subnet tokens can be hard to sell in size, and the rules for digital assets are still being written. Subnet tokens carry no ownership in a legal entity. Full disclosures.
How is investing through Stillcore different from holding TAO?
Holding TAO gives you the network’s currency. Stillcore holds TAO as its reserve and actively selects subnets, sizes and rebalances them, and sources many positions over the counter, directly from founders. About the fund.
Who can invest, and how do I start?
Stillcore’s funds are open only to verified accredited investors. Request our Fund Overview & Research, or book a call with Rob Greer, Partner.