Skip to main content
SUBMIT A PRSUBMIT AN ISSUElast edit: Feb 04, 2025

Mining in Bittensor

Choosing a subnet​

All mining in Bittensor occurs within a subnet. Each subnet independently produces the digital commodities that are its purpose, each subnet creator defining a different incentive mechanism for validators to use in judging miners' work. It is validators scores of miners' performance, according to this incentive mechanism, that determines the proportion of the subnet's emissions allocated to each miner. See Emissions.

Mining in Bittensor is not like mining Bitcoin or many other blockchains, it is active, creative, and competitive. Preparing to be a subnet miner involves researching the right subnet(s) for you to mine, given your own expertise and access to hardware.

Browse the subnets and explore links to their code repositories on Taostats' subnets listings.

Typical compute requirements

Each subnet may have distinct hardware requirements, but this minimum requirements template for subnet creators may give an idea of minimum memory, bandwidth and storage requirements for a typical subnet node.

Mining is not supported on Windows.

Miner registration​

To participate as a miner, you must first register your keys with the subnet in order to receive a UID on that subnet.

No need to create a subnet to mine

You do not have to create a subnet to mine on the Bittensor network. Most miners work on established subnets.

Registration has a cost in TAO. When you secure a UID slot in a subnet on the main chain, this TAO is sunk cost. Nevertheless, you can be a subnet miner in as many subnets as you can afford and expect to be successful.

A subnet can have a maximum of 64 subnet validator UIDs and 192 subnet miner UIDs (256 total) in subnets other than Subnet 1.

Upon registration, your hotkey, which is part of your wallet, becomes the holder of the UID slot. The terms "account" and "hotkey" are used synonymously.

Ownership belongs to a hotkey

When you delegate your TAO to a subnet validator, you attach your delegated TAO to that validator’s hotkey. See Delegation.

A hotkey can hold multiple UIDs across separate subnets. However, within one subnet, each UID must have a unique hotkey.

Run the following command on your terminal, replacing <your_preferred_netuid>, <my_coldkey>, <my_hotkey>. <your_preferred_netuid> is the netuid of your preferred subnet.

btcli subnet register --netuid <your_preferred_netuid>  --wallet.name  <my_coldkey> --wallet.hotkey <my_hotkey>

For example, for subnet 1 (netuid of 1):

btcli subnet register --netuid 1 --wallet.name test-coldkey --wallet.hotkey test-hotkey

Miner deregistration​

A subnet miner can be deregistered if its performance is poor. Mining is competitive—and the UID slots are limited. Except in Subnet 1, all subnets have 256 UID slots per subnet. Of these 256 UID slots, a subnet can have a maximum of 64 subnet validator UIDs and 192 subnet miner UIDs. Each tempo, the lowest ranked mine risks being replaced by a newly registered miner, who takes over that UID.

  • Every subnet has an immunity_period hyperparameter expressed in a number of blocks.
    See

    See immunity_period.

  • A subnet miner or validator at a UID (in that subnet) has immunity_period blocks to improve its performance. When immunity_period expires, that miner or validator can be deregistered if it has the lowest performance in the subnet and a new registration arrives.
  • The immunity_period starts when a miner or validator is registered into the subnet.

Below is a diagram illustrating a subnet miner’s registration timeline:

Miner deregistrationMiner deregistration
  • Blocks are processed in subtensor (the Bittensor blockchain) every 12 seconds.
  • A subnet miner registers a hotkey and receives a UID—and its immunity_period starts.
  • The miner publishes its Axon’s IP:PORT for the subnet validators.
  • The subnet validators refresh their metagraph and discover the new Axon.
  • The subnet validators send requests to that Axon and evaluate its responses. This drives the subnet’s incentive mechanism, awarding emissions to the miner.
  • While still in the immunity_period, the subnet miner builds up its emissions from zero.
  • At the end of the immunity_period, if this miner’s emission ranks the lowest among those also out of their immunity_period, then upon the next registration, this miner’s UID gets transferred to the new registrant.
Subnet miner emission

A subnet miner's emission may not always appear as a smooth curve. Emission might only update at the end of tempo periods, or subnet validators might do more frequent internal updates. For example, a validator might detect new miners and refresh every 100 blocks.

Moving a subnet miner to a different machine​

Once your subnet miner has begun mining, you can move it to a different machine, but proceed with caution.

Always minimize subnet miner downtime

Always minimize any downtime for your subnet miner. Missing validation requests can significantly damage the incentive and rewards of your subnet miner.

To move a subnet miner from one machine to another, follow these steps in order:

  1. Start the subnet miner on the new machine.
  2. Wait for the old miner to stop receiving requests from the subnet validators.
  3. Stop the old miner.

It can take subnet validators some time to recognize the updated IP of the Axon for your subnet miner.

Inspecting UIDs​

After you obtain a UID slot, you can view your wallet’s status by running:

btcli wallet overview --netuid

After providing your wallet name when prompted, you will see output such as:

ParameterValueDescription
COLDKEYmy_coldkeyThe name of the coldkey associated with your slot.
HOTKEYmy_first_hotkeyThe name of the hotkey associated with your slot.
UID5The index of the uid out of available uids.
ACTIVETrueWhether or not the uid is considered active.
STAKE(τ)71.296The amount of stake in this wallet.
RANK0.0629This miner's absolute ranking according to validators on the network.
TRUST0.2629This miner's trust as a proportion of validators on the network.
CONSENSUS0.89This validator's aggregate consensus score.
INCENTIVE0.029This miner's incentive, TAO emission, is attained via mining.
DIVIDENDS0.001This validator's dividends, TAO emission, are attained via validating.
EMISSION29_340_153This miner's total emission in RAO (10^(-9) TAO) per block.
VTRUST0.96936This validator's trust score as a validator.
VPERMIT*Whether this miner is considered active for validating on this subnetwork.
UPDATED43Blocks since this miner set weights on the chain.
AXON131.186.56.85:8091The entrypoint advertised by this miner on the bittensor blockchain.
HOTKEY_SS585F4tQyWr...The ss58-encoded address of the miner's hotkey.

Checking miner registration status​

Use any of the Python snippets below:

  • Using Python interpreter: Type "python" or "python3" in your terminal, then paste a snippet.
  • Using a Python file: Copy into, e.g., check_reg.py, then run python3 check_reg.py.

With SS58 hotkey​

import bittensor as bt
# Replace below with your SS58 hotkey 
hotkey = "5HEo565WAy4Dbq3Sv271SAi7syBSofyfhhwRNjFNSM2gP9M2"
network = "finney"
sub = bt.subtensor(network)
print(f"Registration status for hotkey {hotkey} is: {sub.is_hotkey_registered(hotkey)}")

With SS58 hotkey and netuid​

import bittensor as bt
# Replace below with your SS58 hotkey 
hotkey = "5HEo565WAy4Dbq3Sv271SAi7syBSofyfhhwRNjFNSM2gP9M2"
network = "finney"
netuid = 1 # subnet uid
sub = bt.subtensor(network)
mg = sub.metagraph(netuid)
if hotkey not in mg.hotkeys:
  print(f"Hotkey {hotkey} deregistered")
else:
  print(f"Hotkey {hotkey} is registered")

With UID and SS58 hotkey​

import bittensor as bt
# Replace below with your SS58 hotkey 
hotkey = "5HEo565WAy4Dbq3Sv271SAi7syBSofyfhhwRNjFNSM2gP9M2"
network = "finney"
netuid = 1 # subnet uid
sub = bt.subtensor(network)
mg = sub.metagraph(netuid)
uid = 2 # Your UID
registered = mg.hotkeys[uid] == hotkey
if not registered:
  print(f"Miner at uid {uid} not registered")
else:
  print(f"Miner at uid {uid} registered")