Learn·Risk
How an outsider can take ownership of a subnet
One hotkey's matured conviction must clear 18% of a subnet's eligible α on its own, on a subnet at least a year old — a bar that moves as you watch it.
Published 2026-09-17
The rule, in the chain's own terms
A subnet's owner is a coldkey recorded on chain, SubnetOwner. The runtime lets a non-owner claim it when a single hotkey's matured conviction exceeds 18% of the subnet's eligible α — α staked out less protocol-held α less α burned. Convictions do not add up across hotkeys, and the owner's own lock does not count.
Two further gates: the subnet must be at least one year old, and only matured conviction counts — locked α that has not yet matured contributes nothing, however large. A gauge at 100% on a young subnet is not eligibility.
Why the bar moves
The denominator is live. α is minted into the subnet every block, so eligible α grows and the same conviction is a smaller share of it tomorrow — a gauge can slip back while nobody unlocks. Burned α is subtracted and pushes the other way.
The numerator moves too: a perpetual lock keeps maturing between reads, and an unlocking lock decays. Progress is a position on a moving line, not a countdown, so Taosis projects every lock forward to the current block.
What changes hands
A completed takeover changes one thing on chain: the coldkey in SubnetOwner. Nobody's α moves; what passes to the new owner is control of the subnet.
From chain state alone Taosis cannot tell a lock takeover from a sale or a coldkey swap — all three end in the same owner change — and its guard says so rather than guessing.
Where Taosis shows it
The Takeover watch page ranks every subnet by progress: the largest non-owner hotkey lock, its matured conviction, the α needed and the α still missing, priced in τ. A subnet whose α staked out could not be read is left off rather than ranked at 0%, which would read as safe. The screener's Takeover % column and each subnet page show the same figure.
The chain-state guards on the Alerts page fire when a subnet's largest lock crosses half the threshold and the threshold itself, upward and once per crossing, and when the owner changes. A high percentage is where the line is now, not a prediction.
Read next
Conviction locks
Locking α builds conviction on a schedule set in the chain's own source — including the 18% takeover threshold.
Holder concentration
Three different questions about who holds a subnet — and why the numbers refuse to appear unless they reconcile.
How alerts work
Four things you can watch, what each one compares against, which alerts fire once and which keep firing, and why creating one needs a wallet.