Bittensor Staking Glossary: TAO, Subnets, dTAO
Plain definitions of TAO, subnets, alpha tokens, Root, validators, delegators, dTAO, emissions, APY, proxies, stop-loss and profit lock.
Updated 2026-10-13
What is TAO?
TAO is the native token of Bittensor. It is what you stake, it pays network fees, and the network creates it to reward useful work.
The supply of TAO is capped at 21 million. Its smallest unit is the rao: one TAO is one billion rao.
What is a subnet?
A subnet is an independent market on Bittensor where miners compete to produce a digital service, such as compute, inference or predictions, and validators score their work.
Each subnet has an owner, miners, validators and its own token. Bittensor has more than 100 subnets, each identified by a number. Stakao’s themes group subnets by area, for example compute or agents.
What is an alpha token?
Alpha is the token of one subnet. Every subnet has its own, and it trades against TAO in that subnet’s pool.
Staking TAO into a subnet swaps it for that subnet’s alpha at the pool price. Alpha from one subnet is not worth the same as alpha from another, and its price can rise or fall against TAO. Each alpha token is capped at 21 million, like TAO.
What are Root and subnet 0?
Root, also called subnet 0, is the part of Bittensor where TAO is staked directly.
Root has no miners, no alpha token and no validation work. Stake on Root counts toward validator weight on every subnet and earns a share of the rewards that subnets pay out. Moving TAO in and out of Root is not a swap against a subnet pool.
What is a validator?
A validator is a node that scores the work of miners on a subnet, and earns rewards for doing so.
A validator needs enough stake behind it, and anyone can back one with TAO. The validator keeps a share of the rewards, called its take, and passes the rest to the people who staked with it. Stakao picks validators with strong recent delegator yield, among established validators.
What is a delegator?
A delegator, also called a nominator or a staker, backs a validator with TAO without running a validator.
Delegators share in the validator’s rewards, minus its take. When you use Stakao, you are a delegator, and your TAO stays in your own wallet.
What is dTAO?
dTAO, short for dynamic TAO, is the Bittensor upgrade of February 2025 that gave every subnet its own token.
Since dTAO, the price of each subnet’s token helps decide how much of the TAO emission the subnet receives. Staking into a subnet is a swap from TAO to that subnet’s alpha token.
What are emissions?
Emissions are the new tokens the network creates and pays out.
TAO is emitted to subnets, and each subnet shares its emission between its owner, miners, validators and stakers. The supply of TAO is capped, and the emission rate halves as the supply grows. Staking rewards come from emissions.
What is APY?
APY, or annual percentage yield, is the yearly return of a stake, including the effect of compounding.
On Bittensor, APY is an estimate. It moves with the validator’s results, the prices of subnet tokens and the way emissions are shared. A past APY does not predict a future one, and Stakao does not promise a return.
What is a proxy?
A proxy is a permission that lets one Bittensor account act for another, within limits.
Stakao uses a staking-only proxy. It can stake and unstake for you, but it cannot transfer your TAO. While it exists, the chain reserves a deposit of 0.126 TAO, which returns when you remove it. You can remove it at any time.
What is a stop-loss?
A stop-loss is a price level below your entry at which a position is sold, to limit a loss.
Every position gets a stop-loss that adapts to the subnet’s volatility and only ever moves up.
A stop-loss limits losses but cannot remove them: in a thin market, a sale can fill below the stop price.
What is a profit lock?
As a position gains, its stop rises to lock in part of the gain.
Together with the stop-loss, the profit lock is how the risk engine protects each position.
What are a coldkey and a hotkey?
A coldkey owns funds and signs staking. A hotkey operates on a subnet.
Your wallet account is a coldkey. Validators and miners use hotkeys. When you stake, you choose the hotkey of a validator to back.
What are free, staked and reserved TAO?
Free TAO can be spent. Staked TAO is in positions. Reserved TAO is held by the chain, for example for the proxy deposit.
Your dashboard shows all three. Only free TAO pays network fees.
What is price impact?
Staking into a subnet or unstaking from it is a swap against a pool, so a large trade moves the price a little. That move is called price impact.
Price impact is one reason a sale can fill below a stop price when few buyers are around. Root has none, because it is not a swap.
What does non-custodial mean?
Non-custodial means you keep your own keys, and your TAO stays in your own wallet.
Stakao works through a staking-only permission. It cannot transfer your TAO, and you can revoke access at any time.
What is the risk engine?
A rules-based risk engine decides what to buy, how much and when to sell. The same rules apply to every wallet.
The AI agent, the quant score or the basket rule only suggests subnets. It cannot buy, sell or touch your keys.
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