Under the leadership of founder Const, Bittensor has proposed a new staking initiative following a community Discord meeting. The meeting discussed recent events and outlined plans to reform network staking and governance.
The core of the proposal is a locked staking system known as the “Belief Mechanism.” This update aims to bring greater accountability and long-term consistency to the protocol.
Locked staking introduces time as a new variable for Bittensor.
The Belief Mechanism adds a new dimension to Bittensor's staking functionality. According to the proposal, any holder can lock their stake for months or even years. This creates a verifiable metric: locked stake multiplied by the remaining lock time equals the belief value.
Both subnet owners and regular holders can use this metric to indicate long-term commitment. The system is cryptographically verifiable, eliminating reliance on personal trust. This represents a shift from the current model, where ownership of existing subnets is mostly static and immutable.
According to community notes shared by @TaoOutsider, Const acknowledged recent events, including what the community referred to as a betrayal by an associate named Sam. During the meeting, Const accepted responsibility and directly apologized to the affected holders.
A few hours ago, Bittensor founder Const held an online meeting on Discord with our excellent and loyal community.
I recorded the most important points, and here are the key takeaways.
The initial rollout will start with the locked mechanism before adding any governance layer. Preliminary testing will occur on mature subnets, including subnets 3, 39, and 81, with other large subnets potentially joining. New subnets will receive a grace period before the rules take effect.
The belief voting mechanism paves the way for competitive subnet ownership.
Once governance functionality is enabled, anyone holding locked stakes can vote on the keys of subnet owners. Participants with the highest belief scores will prevail, making ownership dynamic rather than permanent. This replaces the assumption of human trust with protocol-level assurances.
The mechanism aims to prevent sudden withdrawals, avoiding liquidity depletion and harming investors. The locked staking team publicly demonstrates genuine participation willingness. This helps distinguish developers committed to building from those seeking short-term gains.
The broader goal is to improve alignment among subnet owners, miners, validators, and stakers. Better alignment is expected to support capital formation and increase investor confidence over time. These are structural changes rather than superficial adjustments.
The long-term vision for Bittensor discussed in the meeting aims to address unresolved governance issues in Web3.
The Belief Mechanism is seen as a step towards building the decentralized and trustworthy AI consortium described by Const.
After implementation at the subnet level, there are plans to expand governance at the root and chain levels.