What’s new

The root reward claims fix is now built into network upgrade 454

What changed: the fix for root reward claims, which we reported as a proposal, has now been merged into the network's code as upgrade 454. Root staking means parking TAO with the network as a whole and being paid out of every subnet. Some claims were failing for reasons that had nothing to do with the claim itself, for example stakes held elsewhere on other subnets, out of date records of which validators a wallet had backed, or holdings so small they rounded down to zero. The merged code is meant to stop those claims being blocked. Being merged is not the same as being live. Like the other upgrades in the queue, it still needs sign-off before it reaches the network.

Upgrade 455 stops restricted helper keys moving money by the back door

Bittensor lets a wallet owner hand a second key, called a proxy, limited permission to act on their behalf, a bit like giving a house sitter a key that opens the front door but not the safe. Two kinds of proxy are meant to be unable to move funds at all. Until now they could still reach the network's smart contract features and its crowdloan feature, a way of pooling money, and those routes could move value indirectly. Upgrade 455, now merged, blocks those routes entirely for both proxy types. This matters to anyone who has set up a restricted proxy on the assumption that it could not touch their money. It joins the queue of upgrades waiting for sign-off and is not live yet.

A proposal would let root fund managers trade inside their subnet baskets

Root validators, the operators who manage pooled TAO on behalf of stakers, can now spread that money across a chosen basket of subnet tokens. A new proposal, called swap basket, would let them trade between the tokens inside that basket. It pulls four earlier draft changes together into a single proposal. The public write-up gives little detail on limits or safeguards so far. What we would watch: how much freedom these managers get to move other people's stake, and what stops a manager from trading in ways that suit them more than the people who delegated to them. It is a proposal only and has not been approved.

TensorUSD shifts its focus to betting for or against subnet tokens

Subnet 113 runs TUSDT, a stablecoin, meaning a token meant to stay at one dollar, that people create by locking up TAO as security. The team says the subnet will now pivot towards a coming system for taking long or short positions on subnet tokens, in other words betting that they rise or fall, built with a team called ViewPallet. Miners would compete to build trading strategies designed to make money whichever way prices move, and users could hand TAO to those strategies. The stablecoin carries on alongside. This is an announced plan, not a working product, and it depends on the long and short system actually arriving.

Score says its Studio app for customers is about to go live

Score's miners build AI models that understand video, such as tracking players on a sports pitch. The team says Score Studio is about to launch, giving customers a place to actually use those models instead of just reading about them. Next on its list are specialist models for spotting intruders in restricted areas and for early detection of fire and smoke. No launch date was given, so for now this is an announcement, not a live product.

NOVA is testing a more powerful drug-screening tool for its competitors

NOVA runs a competition where miners search for molecules that could become medicines. It is bringing in Boltz-2, an open AI model that predicts how tightly a molecule will grip the protein a drug is meant to target. Instead of each competitor running it themselves, Boltz-2 will run on a shared graphics card server that competitors can query during a run to steer their search. The integration is open for testing and is not yet part of the main competition.