With the amount of new subnets being added it can be hard to get up to date information across all subnets, so data may be slightly out of date from time to time
With the amount of new subnets being added it can be hard to get up to date information across all subnets, so data may be slightly out of date from time to time
TAO Hash (Subnet-14) is a specialized Bittensor subnet focused on incentivizing and decentralizing Proof-of-Work (PoW) mining hashrate. Its mission is to create a permissionless marketplace for computational hash power, initially targeting Bitcoin mining. TAO Hash’s role is distinct – it converts raw compute (SHA-256 hashing) into a valuable commodity on-chain. Miners contribute Bitcoin hashrate and in return earn the subnet’s native “Alpha” rewards token, while validators contribute stake and verify the work, earning TAO (the main Bittensor token) emissions. This effectively swaps TAO for BTC hashpower in a decentralized fashion, aligning Bitcoin’s PoW economics with Bittensor’s incentive model.
The value TAO Hash provides is twofold: it decentralizes mining by rewarding smaller or independent miners outside of traditional pools, and it adds a new commodity (hashrate) to Bittensor’s “market of intelligence,” diversifying the network beyond AI tasks. By turning hashrate into a tokenized asset (the Alpha_14 token of Subnet-14), TAO Hash creates a liquid market for mining power where participants can speculate on hashpower and its future value, much like traders speculating on compute or AI services. In essence, Subnet-14’s mission is to bridge the Bitcoin mining world with Bittensor’s decentralized AI network, providing a novel way to monetize and distribute PoW computing resources while enhancing the security of Bitcoin through broader participation.
TAO Hash (Subnet-14) is a specialized Bittensor subnet focused on incentivizing and decentralizing Proof-of-Work (PoW) mining hashrate. Its mission is to create a permissionless marketplace for computational hash power, initially targeting Bitcoin mining. TAO Hash’s role is distinct – it converts raw compute (SHA-256 hashing) into a valuable commodity on-chain. Miners contribute Bitcoin hashrate and in return earn the subnet’s native “Alpha” rewards token, while validators contribute stake and verify the work, earning TAO (the main Bittensor token) emissions. This effectively swaps TAO for BTC hashpower in a decentralized fashion, aligning Bitcoin’s PoW economics with Bittensor’s incentive model.
The value TAO Hash provides is twofold: it decentralizes mining by rewarding smaller or independent miners outside of traditional pools, and it adds a new commodity (hashrate) to Bittensor’s “market of intelligence,” diversifying the network beyond AI tasks. By turning hashrate into a tokenized asset (the Alpha_14 token of Subnet-14), TAO Hash creates a liquid market for mining power where participants can speculate on hashpower and its future value, much like traders speculating on compute or AI services. In essence, Subnet-14’s mission is to bridge the Bitcoin mining world with Bittensor’s decentralized AI network, providing a novel way to monetize and distribute PoW computing resources while enhancing the security of Bitcoin through broader participation.
TAO Hash implements an innovative miner–validator incentive loop on the Bittensor platform. Miners connect their mining hardware (ASICs, GPUs, etc.) to the subnet by pointing their hashrate to a designated mining pool interface (currently via Braiins Pool integration). Each miner runs a Braiins Farm Proxy locally, which allows their hashrate (SHA-256 hashing for Bitcoin) to be tracked and forwarded to the subnet’s validators. Validators on Subnet-14 operate special nodes that link to a Braiins Pool account (with API access). They continuously fetch pool statistics (shares, hashes) from miners in their pool via the Braiins API, thereby measuring each miner’s contributed hashpower (work submitted). Based on these metrics, validators assign “weights” to miners proportional to the valid hashrate each miner provides. These weights are submitted on-chain through Bittensor’s consensus (the Yuma Consensus) to determine reward distribution. In effect, validators are “buying” hashrate from miners by issuing them weight (credit), and miners “sell” their hashing work for rewards.
On the Bittensor chain, the Dynamic TAO mechanism converts these weights into token rewards. Each subnet has a non-transferrable Alpha token (for Subnet-14, often denoted α₁₄) that miners earn as reward. Validators, in turn, earn TAO emissions from the Bittensor protocol in proportion to the total weights they issue and their stake in TAO. This creates a closed loop: miners receive Alpha tokens for their work, while validators receive TAO for validating that work. The Alpha token’s value is backed by TAO in the subnet’s reserve and follows a bonding curve – as more TAO is staked into Subnet-14, the Alpha_14 token becomes scarcer and more valuable in TAO terms. (Notably, each subnet’s Alpha has a hard cap of 21 million tokens and a halving schedule akin to Bitcoin’s supply, mirroring TAO’s own cap.) Miners can unstake and convert their earned Alpha back into liquid TAO through Bittensor’s staking interface, thus realizing the value of their contributed hashrate. In practical terms, Alpha is automatically swapped for BTC hashrate – miners are paid in Alpha (redeemable for TAO) for every valid share they contribute. This design incentivizes miners to allocate their hashrate across validators in proportion to each validator’s staked TAO (since higher stake yields more rewards), maximizing their expected return. Meanwhile, validators compete to attract miners (hashpower) because their TAO earnings increase with more total weight contributed. The result is a market-driven equilibrium where hashpower flows to the highest-yield validators, and validators fairly evaluate mining performance to earn trust (preventing any one validator from cheating, under Yuma consensus’s anti-manipulation properties). Overall, TAO Hash’s operation is a decentralized hashrate exchange: miners get rewarded based on hash rate and hashprice dynamics, and validators earn by facilitating this exchange and maintaining accurate performance metrics.
Product or Build
TAO Hash provides several user-facing tools and services to engage miners, validators, and observers in the subnet:
Open-Source Subnet Client – The entire codebase for Subnet-14 is open source on GitHub (repository: latent-to/taohash). This includes the miner software (Python package) and validator software needed to run TAO Hash nodes. Installation is straightforward: users can clone the repo and install the taohash package via pip. The project provides dedicated setup guides for participants – for example, a TaoHash Miner Setup Guide for configuring a Bitcoin miner with Braiins Pool is available in the docs. These guides walk through requirements like running a Redis server (for caching share data), setting up Docker and Braiins Proxy, and launching the miner process (with PM2 for persistence). Likewise, validators have documentation for linking their Braiins account and running a TaoHash validator node. The documentation and tooling enable any technically inclined user with mining hardware to join the subnet.
TAOHash Dashboard & Leaderboard – The subnet maintains a public dashboard at TaoHash.com that displays real-time metrics. Users can view the Hashrate History of the subnet, track Alpha emission statistics, and see a live leaderboard of miners. The Miner Leaderboard ranks miners by their provided hashrate (5-minute, 1-hour, 24-hour averages) and shows stats like shares submitted, stake allocated, and rewards (dividends/emission) earned. This transparent dashboard allows the community to monitor the performance and growth of Subnet-14. For example, shortly after launch, the team released the dashboard showing 14 active miners producing on the order of exahashes of hashrate. The site is interactive and updates continuously, offering a window into how distributed miners are contributing to what is effectively a crowd-sourced Bitcoin mining pool on-chain.
Ecosystem Integrations – Being part of Bittensor’s dTAO (dynamic TAO) system, TAO Hash is also integrated into broader tools. On TAO.app and taostats.io, which track subnet statistics, Subnet-14’s market data is available (e.g. market cap in TAO, Alpha price, staking APY, etc.). Community members can use these platforms to analyze Alpha_14’s performance relative to other subnets. Additionally, the subnet has a presence on social and community channels: an official Twitter/X account (@TAOHash) provides updates, and a Discord channel (via Bittensor’s Discord) is available for support and discussion. The team also produces technical content – for instance, they published documentation on running miners with Braiins and have engaged with the community through blog posts and forums. An example is the detailed “Decentralized Hashrate Bet” article by a research partner, which explains TaoHash’s concept and progress to a wider audience.
Alpha Token and Staking Interface – Although Alpha_14 tokens are not directly transferable (they exist within the chain’s staking mechanism), users can interact with them via Bittensor’s staking UI or CLI. TAO Hash doesn’t provide a standalone wallet app (it uses the standard Bittensor wallet and staking procedures), but miners effectively use Bittensor’s substrate chain to stake into Subnet-14 and receive alpha. Thus, existing tools like the Bittensor CLI, browser wallet extensions, or the Talisman wallet support interacting with Subnet-14’s staking. This means miners and TAO holders can stake TAO into Subnet-14 to mint Alpha_14, and conversely, miners with Alpha_14 can burn it to withdraw TAO, all using Bittensor’s on-chain functions. In summary, TAO Hash’s “product” is a combination of software (mining clients and validator nodes) and services (a live dashboard, documentation, and support) that together enable a decentralized mining pool experience anchored to the Bittensor network.
Technical Architecture
Under the hood, TAO Hash’s architecture connects the Bittensor blockchain with external Proof-of-Work infrastructure in a seamless loop. On the backend, validators act as bridges between the Bitcoin mining ecosystem and the Bittensor substrate chain:
Mining Pool Integration: Each TAO Hash validator is linked to a Braiins mining pool account. Braiins (a well-known Bitcoin mining pool operator) provides an API for querying worker statistics and submitting shares. Validators use this API to retrieve detailed metrics on miner performance (such as number of hashes solved, valid shares found, hashrate over time) for miners enrolled under their account. In practice, a miner when configuring their setup will point their mining rigs to a local Braiins farm proxy, which in turn forwards work to a pool endpoint associated with a particular validator. The validator’s software includes modules to poll the Braiins API regularly, collecting each miner’s share counts and hashrate reports. This data is processed to produce Bittensor weights – essentially scores representing each miner’s contributed work. The use of Braiins (and potentially other pools in the future) allows TAO Hash to verify proof-of-work cheaply and accurately (leveraging the pool’s existing share validation) rather than reinvent a mining protocol from scratch. The architecture is extensible to other mineable projects or pools that have verifiable performance metrics. For instance, the design could support other SHA-256 networks or even different PoW algorithms by swapping out the pool API/backend, as long as miners’ work can be authenticated and quantified. This modularity is intended to allow expansion beyond Bitcoin in the future.
Validator Node Logic: The TAO Hash validator software is built primarily in Python (as part of the Bittensor ecosystem’s Python tooling) and runs as a specialized Bittensor “neuron”. It connects to the Subtensor chain (Bittensor’s substrate-based blockchain) to submit weights and participate in consensus. TAO Hash validators follow the standard Bittensor validator lifecycle: in each Bittensor epoch, they compute new weights for each miner (based on recent hashrate data) and call the set_weights extrinsic on-chain to record those weights. Bittensor’s on-chain Yuma Consensus then aggregates all validator reports and determines the final emission rewards for that epoch. The Yuma algorithm ensures that if multiple validators report on the same miners, the consensus will weight their inputs by stake and reliability, mitigating any single validator’s errors or manipulation. Validators also monitor “PoolInfo” commits – essentially, they log the state of their mining pool (total hashrate, number of miners, etc.) and may publish periodic summaries on-chain (ensuring transparency about how much hashpower they’ve received). The Bittensor chain pays out TAO to validators according to the total value of weights they contribute (adjusted by stake), which aligns their incentives to accept as much honest hashrate as possible. In summary, validators run a dual workload: off-chain they operate a mini mining pool server + API client, and on-chain they function as validators submitting work scores.
Data and Infrastructure: TAO Hash miners are recommended to run a Redis database locally to cache their mining data. This helps retain share counts and prevent data loss if the miner process restarts. The use of Docker containers and Docker Compose is suggested for ease of deployment (e.g. running the Braiins proxy and the TaoHash miner in containers). The reference implementation also uses PM2 (Process Manager) for Node/Python to daemonize the miner process, ensuring it stays running 24/7. On the validator side, a standard Python 3.9+ environment is required along with the Bittensor SDK. The choice of Python and existing Bittensor libraries means TAO Hash can leverage Bittensor’s networking, cryptography (for wallets and signing transactions), and substrate RPC connectivity out-of-the-box. The subnet uses Bittensor’s stake/unstake mechanisms to handle Alpha issuance: when miners stake TAO into Subnet-14, they mint Alpha_14 which is tracked in the chain’s state, and when validators report work, the chain mints additional Alpha to reward miners and TAO to reward validators accordingly. The constant-product AMM model built into dynamic TAO ensures the exchange rate between TAO and Alpha_14 floats based on supply and demand (TAO staked vs Alpha in circulation). This is entirely handled by the chain’s runtime logic; TAO Hash simply feeds in the data (weights) that drives those economics. No traditional AI model or neural network is deployed in Subnet-14 – instead, the “compute work” is the hashing itself. Interestingly, because SHA-256 hashing is a straightforward, measurable task, TAO Hash’s evaluation function is deterministic (a hash either meets the target or not), unlike subjective AI scoring in other subnets. This makes the validation logic relatively simple (counting hashes and shares) and shifts complexity to economic coordination.
Security and Reliability: By leveraging established mining pools and APIs, TAO Hash inherits robust validation of PoW (Braiins ensures that submitted shares meet Bitcoin’s difficulty targets). Validators cannot easily fake a miner’s work because the shares must be valid in the Bitcoin network context. The main trust assumption is that validators honestly report the shares to the chain. If a validator under-reports a miner’s hashrate, that miner can switch to a different validator (hashpower is free to move, as miners choose which validator’s pool to join). This fosters a trustless but incentive-aligned environment, where dishonest validators would lose miners, and miners have the freedom to optimize their rewards by selecting validators with reliable reporting and high stake. The use of Yuma consensus on-chain further guards against any single point of failure in reporting. Additionally, TAO Hash’s code is open for community review, and being part of the broader Bittensor network means it benefits from the security of the Subtensor blockchain and its consensus mechanism. In short, the technical architecture of TAO Hash marries the Bitcoin mining process with Bittensor’s decentralized protocol, using software bridges (APIs, proxies) and on-chain algorithms to maintain a trust-minimized marketplace for hashing power.
TAO Hash implements an innovative miner–validator incentive loop on the Bittensor platform. Miners connect their mining hardware (ASICs, GPUs, etc.) to the subnet by pointing their hashrate to a designated mining pool interface (currently via Braiins Pool integration). Each miner runs a Braiins Farm Proxy locally, which allows their hashrate (SHA-256 hashing for Bitcoin) to be tracked and forwarded to the subnet’s validators. Validators on Subnet-14 operate special nodes that link to a Braiins Pool account (with API access). They continuously fetch pool statistics (shares, hashes) from miners in their pool via the Braiins API, thereby measuring each miner’s contributed hashpower (work submitted). Based on these metrics, validators assign “weights” to miners proportional to the valid hashrate each miner provides. These weights are submitted on-chain through Bittensor’s consensus (the Yuma Consensus) to determine reward distribution. In effect, validators are “buying” hashrate from miners by issuing them weight (credit), and miners “sell” their hashing work for rewards.
On the Bittensor chain, the Dynamic TAO mechanism converts these weights into token rewards. Each subnet has a non-transferrable Alpha token (for Subnet-14, often denoted α₁₄) that miners earn as reward. Validators, in turn, earn TAO emissions from the Bittensor protocol in proportion to the total weights they issue and their stake in TAO. This creates a closed loop: miners receive Alpha tokens for their work, while validators receive TAO for validating that work. The Alpha token’s value is backed by TAO in the subnet’s reserve and follows a bonding curve – as more TAO is staked into Subnet-14, the Alpha_14 token becomes scarcer and more valuable in TAO terms. (Notably, each subnet’s Alpha has a hard cap of 21 million tokens and a halving schedule akin to Bitcoin’s supply, mirroring TAO’s own cap.) Miners can unstake and convert their earned Alpha back into liquid TAO through Bittensor’s staking interface, thus realizing the value of their contributed hashrate. In practical terms, Alpha is automatically swapped for BTC hashrate – miners are paid in Alpha (redeemable for TAO) for every valid share they contribute. This design incentivizes miners to allocate their hashrate across validators in proportion to each validator’s staked TAO (since higher stake yields more rewards), maximizing their expected return. Meanwhile, validators compete to attract miners (hashpower) because their TAO earnings increase with more total weight contributed. The result is a market-driven equilibrium where hashpower flows to the highest-yield validators, and validators fairly evaluate mining performance to earn trust (preventing any one validator from cheating, under Yuma consensus’s anti-manipulation properties). Overall, TAO Hash’s operation is a decentralized hashrate exchange: miners get rewarded based on hash rate and hashprice dynamics, and validators earn by facilitating this exchange and maintaining accurate performance metrics.
Product or Build
TAO Hash provides several user-facing tools and services to engage miners, validators, and observers in the subnet:
Open-Source Subnet Client – The entire codebase for Subnet-14 is open source on GitHub (repository: latent-to/taohash). This includes the miner software (Python package) and validator software needed to run TAO Hash nodes. Installation is straightforward: users can clone the repo and install the taohash package via pip. The project provides dedicated setup guides for participants – for example, a TaoHash Miner Setup Guide for configuring a Bitcoin miner with Braiins Pool is available in the docs. These guides walk through requirements like running a Redis server (for caching share data), setting up Docker and Braiins Proxy, and launching the miner process (with PM2 for persistence). Likewise, validators have documentation for linking their Braiins account and running a TaoHash validator node. The documentation and tooling enable any technically inclined user with mining hardware to join the subnet.
TAOHash Dashboard & Leaderboard – The subnet maintains a public dashboard at TaoHash.com that displays real-time metrics. Users can view the Hashrate History of the subnet, track Alpha emission statistics, and see a live leaderboard of miners. The Miner Leaderboard ranks miners by their provided hashrate (5-minute, 1-hour, 24-hour averages) and shows stats like shares submitted, stake allocated, and rewards (dividends/emission) earned. This transparent dashboard allows the community to monitor the performance and growth of Subnet-14. For example, shortly after launch, the team released the dashboard showing 14 active miners producing on the order of exahashes of hashrate. The site is interactive and updates continuously, offering a window into how distributed miners are contributing to what is effectively a crowd-sourced Bitcoin mining pool on-chain.
Ecosystem Integrations – Being part of Bittensor’s dTAO (dynamic TAO) system, TAO Hash is also integrated into broader tools. On TAO.app and taostats.io, which track subnet statistics, Subnet-14’s market data is available (e.g. market cap in TAO, Alpha price, staking APY, etc.). Community members can use these platforms to analyze Alpha_14’s performance relative to other subnets. Additionally, the subnet has a presence on social and community channels: an official Twitter/X account (@TAOHash) provides updates, and a Discord channel (via Bittensor’s Discord) is available for support and discussion. The team also produces technical content – for instance, they published documentation on running miners with Braiins and have engaged with the community through blog posts and forums. An example is the detailed “Decentralized Hashrate Bet” article by a research partner, which explains TaoHash’s concept and progress to a wider audience.
Alpha Token and Staking Interface – Although Alpha_14 tokens are not directly transferable (they exist within the chain’s staking mechanism), users can interact with them via Bittensor’s staking UI or CLI. TAO Hash doesn’t provide a standalone wallet app (it uses the standard Bittensor wallet and staking procedures), but miners effectively use Bittensor’s substrate chain to stake into Subnet-14 and receive alpha. Thus, existing tools like the Bittensor CLI, browser wallet extensions, or the Talisman wallet support interacting with Subnet-14’s staking. This means miners and TAO holders can stake TAO into Subnet-14 to mint Alpha_14, and conversely, miners with Alpha_14 can burn it to withdraw TAO, all using Bittensor’s on-chain functions. In summary, TAO Hash’s “product” is a combination of software (mining clients and validator nodes) and services (a live dashboard, documentation, and support) that together enable a decentralized mining pool experience anchored to the Bittensor network.
Technical Architecture
Under the hood, TAO Hash’s architecture connects the Bittensor blockchain with external Proof-of-Work infrastructure in a seamless loop. On the backend, validators act as bridges between the Bitcoin mining ecosystem and the Bittensor substrate chain:
Mining Pool Integration: Each TAO Hash validator is linked to a Braiins mining pool account. Braiins (a well-known Bitcoin mining pool operator) provides an API for querying worker statistics and submitting shares. Validators use this API to retrieve detailed metrics on miner performance (such as number of hashes solved, valid shares found, hashrate over time) for miners enrolled under their account. In practice, a miner when configuring their setup will point their mining rigs to a local Braiins farm proxy, which in turn forwards work to a pool endpoint associated with a particular validator. The validator’s software includes modules to poll the Braiins API regularly, collecting each miner’s share counts and hashrate reports. This data is processed to produce Bittensor weights – essentially scores representing each miner’s contributed work. The use of Braiins (and potentially other pools in the future) allows TAO Hash to verify proof-of-work cheaply and accurately (leveraging the pool’s existing share validation) rather than reinvent a mining protocol from scratch. The architecture is extensible to other mineable projects or pools that have verifiable performance metrics. For instance, the design could support other SHA-256 networks or even different PoW algorithms by swapping out the pool API/backend, as long as miners’ work can be authenticated and quantified. This modularity is intended to allow expansion beyond Bitcoin in the future.
Validator Node Logic: The TAO Hash validator software is built primarily in Python (as part of the Bittensor ecosystem’s Python tooling) and runs as a specialized Bittensor “neuron”. It connects to the Subtensor chain (Bittensor’s substrate-based blockchain) to submit weights and participate in consensus. TAO Hash validators follow the standard Bittensor validator lifecycle: in each Bittensor epoch, they compute new weights for each miner (based on recent hashrate data) and call the set_weights extrinsic on-chain to record those weights. Bittensor’s on-chain Yuma Consensus then aggregates all validator reports and determines the final emission rewards for that epoch. The Yuma algorithm ensures that if multiple validators report on the same miners, the consensus will weight their inputs by stake and reliability, mitigating any single validator’s errors or manipulation. Validators also monitor “PoolInfo” commits – essentially, they log the state of their mining pool (total hashrate, number of miners, etc.) and may publish periodic summaries on-chain (ensuring transparency about how much hashpower they’ve received). The Bittensor chain pays out TAO to validators according to the total value of weights they contribute (adjusted by stake), which aligns their incentives to accept as much honest hashrate as possible. In summary, validators run a dual workload: off-chain they operate a mini mining pool server + API client, and on-chain they function as validators submitting work scores.
Data and Infrastructure: TAO Hash miners are recommended to run a Redis database locally to cache their mining data. This helps retain share counts and prevent data loss if the miner process restarts. The use of Docker containers and Docker Compose is suggested for ease of deployment (e.g. running the Braiins proxy and the TaoHash miner in containers). The reference implementation also uses PM2 (Process Manager) for Node/Python to daemonize the miner process, ensuring it stays running 24/7. On the validator side, a standard Python 3.9+ environment is required along with the Bittensor SDK. The choice of Python and existing Bittensor libraries means TAO Hash can leverage Bittensor’s networking, cryptography (for wallets and signing transactions), and substrate RPC connectivity out-of-the-box. The subnet uses Bittensor’s stake/unstake mechanisms to handle Alpha issuance: when miners stake TAO into Subnet-14, they mint Alpha_14 which is tracked in the chain’s state, and when validators report work, the chain mints additional Alpha to reward miners and TAO to reward validators accordingly. The constant-product AMM model built into dynamic TAO ensures the exchange rate between TAO and Alpha_14 floats based on supply and demand (TAO staked vs Alpha in circulation). This is entirely handled by the chain’s runtime logic; TAO Hash simply feeds in the data (weights) that drives those economics. No traditional AI model or neural network is deployed in Subnet-14 – instead, the “compute work” is the hashing itself. Interestingly, because SHA-256 hashing is a straightforward, measurable task, TAO Hash’s evaluation function is deterministic (a hash either meets the target or not), unlike subjective AI scoring in other subnets. This makes the validation logic relatively simple (counting hashes and shares) and shifts complexity to economic coordination.
Security and Reliability: By leveraging established mining pools and APIs, TAO Hash inherits robust validation of PoW (Braiins ensures that submitted shares meet Bitcoin’s difficulty targets). Validators cannot easily fake a miner’s work because the shares must be valid in the Bitcoin network context. The main trust assumption is that validators honestly report the shares to the chain. If a validator under-reports a miner’s hashrate, that miner can switch to a different validator (hashpower is free to move, as miners choose which validator’s pool to join). This fosters a trustless but incentive-aligned environment, where dishonest validators would lose miners, and miners have the freedom to optimize their rewards by selecting validators with reliable reporting and high stake. The use of Yuma consensus on-chain further guards against any single point of failure in reporting. Additionally, TAO Hash’s code is open for community review, and being part of the broader Bittensor network means it benefits from the security of the Subtensor blockchain and its consensus mechanism. In short, the technical architecture of TAO Hash marries the Bitcoin mining process with Bittensor’s decentralized protocol, using software bridges (APIs, proxies) and on-chain algorithms to maintain a trust-minimized marketplace for hashing power.
TAO Hash (Subnet-14) is developed and maintained by Latent Holdings, an organization of core contributors within the Bittensor ecosystem. Latent Holdings was founded in 2024 by a group of experienced open-source developers and entrepreneurs, and it acquired stewardship of Subnet-14 to build out the TAO Hash vision. Key team members and public contributors include:
Joseph Jacks (JJ) – Co-Founder
JJ is known for founding OSS Capital (a VC firm for commercial open-source) and has become an advocate for Bittensor. As a co-founder of TAO Hash, he provides strategic direction. Profiles: Twitter @JosephJacks_ (frequently updates on TAO Hash progress); GitHub (latent-to organization).
Cameron Fairchild – Co-Founder
Cameron is a core contributor to Bittensor’s codebase and now spearheads the technical development of TAO Hash. He has a background in computer science (Univ. of Toronto) and previously worked on the OpenTensor Foundation. Profiles: GitHub camfairchild (Latent CTO); Twitter @KibibyteMe (shares Bittensor updates).
Benjamin Himes – Senior Engineer
Contributing to TAO Hash’s core code and Bittensor improvements. Benjamin has worked on Bittensor’s concurrency and wallet modules. Profiles: GitHub contributor (opentensor repo) as “Benjamin Himes”.
Roman Chkhaidze – Engineer
Roman played a major role in developing the Bittensor wallet and commit-reveal mechanisms, and he contributed to TAO Hash’s mining logic. Profiles: Twitter handle @basfroman (community alias); GitHub (opentensor dev).
Ibraheem Nadeem – Engineer
Ibraheem was instrumental in writing the miner setup guides and optimizing the subnet’s performance (praised for his “great ship” of the miner documentation). Profiles: Twitter @IbraheemMNadeem (shares technical updates); GitHub ibraheem-nadeem.
Michael Trestman – Technical Documentation lead.
He is responsible for creating and maintaining TAO Hash docs and user guides, ensuring miners and validators have clear instructions.
Clément Blaise – Infrastructure specialist.
He oversees the deployment infrastructure (cloud setups, continuous integration, etc.) for TAO Hash and helps manage the explorer/dashboard (taohash.com).
Xavier Lyu – Head of Research
Xavier analyzes subnet performance and market dynamics (he often shares insights under the alias “TAO Insider”). He ensures the economic design of TAO Hash is data-driven and researches new features (his work ties into forecasting hashprice, etc.).
Yasmine Ibrahim – Chief Compliance Officer
She ensures that TAO Hash operations and any token-related activities comply with relevant regulations, and she also handles partnerships and legal.
This diverse team (spanning engineering, research, and compliance) is publicly visible – many team members engage on Twitter/X and GitHub, openly discussing development updates. For example, Latent’s official Twitter (@latentholdings) often highlights contributions by Cameron, Ibraheem, Roman, and others. The Latent Holdings LinkedIn page also confirms several of these individuals in their roles (e.g. Cameron Fairchild as a core contributor, Ibraheem Nadeem as Sr. Engineer, Xavier Lyu as Head of Research, Yasmine Ibrahim as CCO). The collaboration with Bittensor’s OpenTensor Foundation is tight – at least “3 of the 5 top Bittensor code contributors work at Latent”. In summary, Subnet-14 is built by a seasoned team of Bittensor developers under Latent Holdings, guided by Joseph Jacks’s vision and Cameron Fairchild’s technical leadership, along with active community contributors. This team is not anonymous; they are well-known in the Bittensor community and reachable via their GitHub or social profiles.
TAO Hash (Subnet-14) is developed and maintained by Latent Holdings, an organization of core contributors within the Bittensor ecosystem. Latent Holdings was founded in 2024 by a group of experienced open-source developers and entrepreneurs, and it acquired stewardship of Subnet-14 to build out the TAO Hash vision. Key team members and public contributors include:
Joseph Jacks (JJ) – Co-Founder
JJ is known for founding OSS Capital (a VC firm for commercial open-source) and has become an advocate for Bittensor. As a co-founder of TAO Hash, he provides strategic direction. Profiles: Twitter @JosephJacks_ (frequently updates on TAO Hash progress); GitHub (latent-to organization).
Cameron Fairchild – Co-Founder
Cameron is a core contributor to Bittensor’s codebase and now spearheads the technical development of TAO Hash. He has a background in computer science (Univ. of Toronto) and previously worked on the OpenTensor Foundation. Profiles: GitHub camfairchild (Latent CTO); Twitter @KibibyteMe (shares Bittensor updates).
Benjamin Himes – Senior Engineer
Contributing to TAO Hash’s core code and Bittensor improvements. Benjamin has worked on Bittensor’s concurrency and wallet modules. Profiles: GitHub contributor (opentensor repo) as “Benjamin Himes”.
Roman Chkhaidze – Engineer
Roman played a major role in developing the Bittensor wallet and commit-reveal mechanisms, and he contributed to TAO Hash’s mining logic. Profiles: Twitter handle @basfroman (community alias); GitHub (opentensor dev).
Ibraheem Nadeem – Engineer
Ibraheem was instrumental in writing the miner setup guides and optimizing the subnet’s performance (praised for his “great ship” of the miner documentation). Profiles: Twitter @IbraheemMNadeem (shares technical updates); GitHub ibraheem-nadeem.
Michael Trestman – Technical Documentation lead.
He is responsible for creating and maintaining TAO Hash docs and user guides, ensuring miners and validators have clear instructions.
Clément Blaise – Infrastructure specialist.
He oversees the deployment infrastructure (cloud setups, continuous integration, etc.) for TAO Hash and helps manage the explorer/dashboard (taohash.com).
Xavier Lyu – Head of Research
Xavier analyzes subnet performance and market dynamics (he often shares insights under the alias “TAO Insider”). He ensures the economic design of TAO Hash is data-driven and researches new features (his work ties into forecasting hashprice, etc.).
Yasmine Ibrahim – Chief Compliance Officer
She ensures that TAO Hash operations and any token-related activities comply with relevant regulations, and she also handles partnerships and legal.
This diverse team (spanning engineering, research, and compliance) is publicly visible – many team members engage on Twitter/X and GitHub, openly discussing development updates. For example, Latent’s official Twitter (@latentholdings) often highlights contributions by Cameron, Ibraheem, Roman, and others. The Latent Holdings LinkedIn page also confirms several of these individuals in their roles (e.g. Cameron Fairchild as a core contributor, Ibraheem Nadeem as Sr. Engineer, Xavier Lyu as Head of Research, Yasmine Ibrahim as CCO). The collaboration with Bittensor’s OpenTensor Foundation is tight – at least “3 of the 5 top Bittensor code contributors work at Latent”. In summary, Subnet-14 is built by a seasoned team of Bittensor developers under Latent Holdings, guided by Joseph Jacks’s vision and Cameron Fairchild’s technical leadership, along with active community contributors. This team is not anonymous; they are well-known in the Bittensor community and reachable via their GitHub or social profiles.
TAO Hash launched on mainnet in late April 2025 with an ambitious roadmap to transform decentralized mining. In the first week post-launch, the subnet already achieved a peak hashrate approaching 2 exahashes/second (EH/s) with only a handful of miners contributing. This is an astonishing start – ~2 EH/s is a significant fraction of Bitcoin’s total network power (~0.5–1% of the BTC network, which raised eyebrows in the crypto mining community). Early results saw the subnet collectively mine over 1 BTC in its first 8 days of operation, proving that the model works at scale. Having bootstrapped this initial capacity, the team has set aggressive targets for growth. According to community roadmap discussions, the goal in Q2 2025 is to ramp up TAO Hash’s hashrate by almost two orders of magnitude (200×) from the launch baselin. The aspiration is that Subnet-14 could be mining on the order of one entire Bitcoin block per day on average. (For context, one block per day at the 2025 block reward is ~3.125 BTC/day, implying roughly 0.7% of total Bitcoin hashpower if achieved.) Hitting this milestone would effectively make TAO Hash one of the largest Bitcoin “miners” in the world by hashrate – completely through decentralized contributions. Observers have noted that if the current trajectory continues, “SN14… will be the largest BTC miner in the world”, highlighting the disruptive potential.
To reach these milestones, the team plans to onboard more miners and validators. Outreach is ongoing via Bitcoin mining communities to attract individual ASIC owners and even small mining farms to join TAO Hash for additional revenue. The subnet’s incentive structure (Alpha rewards plus exposure to TAO) is being promoted as an edge for miners, especially if traditional mining margins are thin. The roadmap also includes technical improvements: for example, support for more mining pool backends and algorithms. While Braiins Pool (Stratum V2) is the first integration, the architecture is built to incorporate others. A future update may enable multiple pool options or even direct poolless mining where validators perform share validation themselves for different chains. The TAO Hash team has indicated interest in extending the model to other Proof-of-Work cryptocurrencies once Bitcoin mining is proven out. Potential expansions could include ETHW or Litecoin/Dogecoin (Scrypt) if suitable APIs or proxies exist, or any PoW network where work submission can be verified. This would make TAO Hash a multi-asset hashrate marketplace. However, Bitcoin remains the priority due to its massive hashpower and the clear decentralization benefit.
Another aspect of the roadmap is refining the “hashrate rental and exchange” mechanisms. Currently, miners effectively “rent” hashpower to validators for Alpha, but all happens implicitly on-chain. The team has floated ideas of building a more explicit hashrate marketplace interface where entities could trade hashpower contracts denominated in Alpha. This could resemble a decentralized NiceHash-like service on Bittensor. Such a feature would allow, for example, a TAO holder to stake TAO and indirectly “buy” a certain amount of BTC hashpower for a period, with the mining rewards (BTC block rewards) feeding back to the subnet’s value. While not yet implemented, the framework to exchange TAO <-> hashrate is already live, so it’s about creating user-friendly layers on top.
Major milestones achieved and upcoming: The launch of mainnet Subnet-14 itself (with Latent Holdings taking over the previously empty slot 14) was a significant milestone in April 2025. Following launch, the release of the TAOHash dashboard and initial performance stats in early May 2025 demonstrated transparency and attracted more community interest. In mid-2025 (the present), the focus is on scaling participation – improving documentation, simplifying the setup (perhaps containerizing everything for one-click deployment), and ensuring the system remains stable as hashrate grows. The next big milestone is reaching a self-sustaining scale: e.g., 100+ active miners and double-digit EH/s of hashpower, which would validate the concept decisively. On the validator side, decentralization is also a goal: currently Latent’s own validators bootstrap the subnet, but over time external validators could join (subject to Bittensor’s staking requirements) to increase redundancy. The team may publish Bittensor improvement proposals (BIPs) if protocol-level changes are needed to better support high-throughput PoW subnets.
In the long term, TAO Hash is envisioned as a template for decentralized mining on any chain. If Subnet-14 can successfully capture even a few percent of Bitcoin’s hash rate in a permissionless way, it proves that hash power can be treated as a DeFi-like commodity. This could inspire similar subnets: e.g., a subnet for Ethereum’s validator duty marketplace or for other resources. For TAO Hash itself, a successful future means it complements traditional mining pools rather than replaces them, offering miners an alternative route where they gain exposure to both BTC and TAO. The team’s strategic goal is to reinforce Bittensor’s narrative as a general compute marketplace – showing that the network isn’t just about AI model hosting, but can coordinate **“disparate, computationally intensive tasks through market-based incentives”. In line with Bittensor’s wider roadmap, all subnets (including TAO Hash) will undergo continuous halving of alpha emissions to mirror Bitcoin’s schedule, which means the rewards will decrease over time unless the Alpha token’s value rises (putting pressure on the subnet to remain valuable and widely staked).
The TAO Hash community is actively discussing optimizations such as miner profitability enhancements (making sure even small miners cover electricity with the extra Alpha earned), validator fairness (to prevent any potential collusion or “weight centralization”), and risk management if BTC’s hashprice (mining revenue per hash) fluctuates strongly. Some skeptics in the Bittensor forum have questioned whether TAO Hash primarily benefits speculators, but the team is addressing these concerns through transparent data and by adjusting parameters if needed. As the distributed hashrate marketplace is novel, part of the roadmap is simply learning and iterating: the project will gather data on how miners behave (e.g., do they hop between validators for better rates?), and how the Alpha_14 price stabilizes, then refine the incentive model accordingly.
In summary, the roadmap for Subnet-14 TAO Hash is to grow from an experimental subnet to a major player in Bitcoin mining by leveraging Bittensor’s dynamic token system. Major upcoming goals include dramatically increasing hashrate (targeting ~1 block/day equivalent), expanding support to more PoW networks, and possibly building out a richer feature set for hashrate trading. Longer-term, TAO Hash could set a precedent for decentralizing other “single-actor” industries via the Bittensor model, fulfilling the vision of Bittensor as a “network of specialized compute markets” with TAO Hash leading the way for PoW commodities. The team’s long-term strategic goal is nothing short of reshaping how mining power is bought and sold, making it as trustless and open as any DeFi marketplace, all while bolstering the security of the Bitcoin network through greater decentralization.
TAO Hash launched on mainnet in late April 2025 with an ambitious roadmap to transform decentralized mining. In the first week post-launch, the subnet already achieved a peak hashrate approaching 2 exahashes/second (EH/s) with only a handful of miners contributing. This is an astonishing start – ~2 EH/s is a significant fraction of Bitcoin’s total network power (~0.5–1% of the BTC network, which raised eyebrows in the crypto mining community). Early results saw the subnet collectively mine over 1 BTC in its first 8 days of operation, proving that the model works at scale. Having bootstrapped this initial capacity, the team has set aggressive targets for growth. According to community roadmap discussions, the goal in Q2 2025 is to ramp up TAO Hash’s hashrate by almost two orders of magnitude (200×) from the launch baselin. The aspiration is that Subnet-14 could be mining on the order of one entire Bitcoin block per day on average. (For context, one block per day at the 2025 block reward is ~3.125 BTC/day, implying roughly 0.7% of total Bitcoin hashpower if achieved.) Hitting this milestone would effectively make TAO Hash one of the largest Bitcoin “miners” in the world by hashrate – completely through decentralized contributions. Observers have noted that if the current trajectory continues, “SN14… will be the largest BTC miner in the world”, highlighting the disruptive potential.
To reach these milestones, the team plans to onboard more miners and validators. Outreach is ongoing via Bitcoin mining communities to attract individual ASIC owners and even small mining farms to join TAO Hash for additional revenue. The subnet’s incentive structure (Alpha rewards plus exposure to TAO) is being promoted as an edge for miners, especially if traditional mining margins are thin. The roadmap also includes technical improvements: for example, support for more mining pool backends and algorithms. While Braiins Pool (Stratum V2) is the first integration, the architecture is built to incorporate others. A future update may enable multiple pool options or even direct poolless mining where validators perform share validation themselves for different chains. The TAO Hash team has indicated interest in extending the model to other Proof-of-Work cryptocurrencies once Bitcoin mining is proven out. Potential expansions could include ETHW or Litecoin/Dogecoin (Scrypt) if suitable APIs or proxies exist, or any PoW network where work submission can be verified. This would make TAO Hash a multi-asset hashrate marketplace. However, Bitcoin remains the priority due to its massive hashpower and the clear decentralization benefit.
Another aspect of the roadmap is refining the “hashrate rental and exchange” mechanisms. Currently, miners effectively “rent” hashpower to validators for Alpha, but all happens implicitly on-chain. The team has floated ideas of building a more explicit hashrate marketplace interface where entities could trade hashpower contracts denominated in Alpha. This could resemble a decentralized NiceHash-like service on Bittensor. Such a feature would allow, for example, a TAO holder to stake TAO and indirectly “buy” a certain amount of BTC hashpower for a period, with the mining rewards (BTC block rewards) feeding back to the subnet’s value. While not yet implemented, the framework to exchange TAO <-> hashrate is already live, so it’s about creating user-friendly layers on top.
Major milestones achieved and upcoming: The launch of mainnet Subnet-14 itself (with Latent Holdings taking over the previously empty slot 14) was a significant milestone in April 2025. Following launch, the release of the TAOHash dashboard and initial performance stats in early May 2025 demonstrated transparency and attracted more community interest. In mid-2025 (the present), the focus is on scaling participation – improving documentation, simplifying the setup (perhaps containerizing everything for one-click deployment), and ensuring the system remains stable as hashrate grows. The next big milestone is reaching a self-sustaining scale: e.g., 100+ active miners and double-digit EH/s of hashpower, which would validate the concept decisively. On the validator side, decentralization is also a goal: currently Latent’s own validators bootstrap the subnet, but over time external validators could join (subject to Bittensor’s staking requirements) to increase redundancy. The team may publish Bittensor improvement proposals (BIPs) if protocol-level changes are needed to better support high-throughput PoW subnets.
In the long term, TAO Hash is envisioned as a template for decentralized mining on any chain. If Subnet-14 can successfully capture even a few percent of Bitcoin’s hash rate in a permissionless way, it proves that hash power can be treated as a DeFi-like commodity. This could inspire similar subnets: e.g., a subnet for Ethereum’s validator duty marketplace or for other resources. For TAO Hash itself, a successful future means it complements traditional mining pools rather than replaces them, offering miners an alternative route where they gain exposure to both BTC and TAO. The team’s strategic goal is to reinforce Bittensor’s narrative as a general compute marketplace – showing that the network isn’t just about AI model hosting, but can coordinate **“disparate, computationally intensive tasks through market-based incentives”. In line with Bittensor’s wider roadmap, all subnets (including TAO Hash) will undergo continuous halving of alpha emissions to mirror Bitcoin’s schedule, which means the rewards will decrease over time unless the Alpha token’s value rises (putting pressure on the subnet to remain valuable and widely staked).
The TAO Hash community is actively discussing optimizations such as miner profitability enhancements (making sure even small miners cover electricity with the extra Alpha earned), validator fairness (to prevent any potential collusion or “weight centralization”), and risk management if BTC’s hashprice (mining revenue per hash) fluctuates strongly. Some skeptics in the Bittensor forum have questioned whether TAO Hash primarily benefits speculators, but the team is addressing these concerns through transparent data and by adjusting parameters if needed. As the distributed hashrate marketplace is novel, part of the roadmap is simply learning and iterating: the project will gather data on how miners behave (e.g., do they hop between validators for better rates?), and how the Alpha_14 price stabilizes, then refine the incentive model accordingly.
In summary, the roadmap for Subnet-14 TAO Hash is to grow from an experimental subnet to a major player in Bitcoin mining by leveraging Bittensor’s dynamic token system. Major upcoming goals include dramatically increasing hashrate (targeting ~1 block/day equivalent), expanding support to more PoW networks, and possibly building out a richer feature set for hashrate trading. Longer-term, TAO Hash could set a precedent for decentralizing other “single-actor” industries via the Bittensor model, fulfilling the vision of Bittensor as a “network of specialized compute markets” with TAO Hash leading the way for PoW commodities. The team’s long-term strategic goal is nothing short of reshaping how mining power is bought and sold, making it as trustless and open as any DeFi marketplace, all while bolstering the security of the Bitcoin network through greater decentralization.
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