Learn·Risk
Reading HHI, Nakamoto and Gini on a subnet
Three different questions about who holds a subnet — and why the numbers refuse to appear unless they reconcile.
Three measures, three questions
HHI answers how concentrated holdings are overall. The Nakamoto coefficient answers how few holders would have to act together to control the subnet. The top-10 share answers how much sits with the largest holders. Gini answers how unequal the distribution is.
They are not interchangeable. A subnet can be unequal (high Gini) yet still need many parties to collude (high Nakamoto).
Reconciliation is the honesty check
The holder totals are checked against the chain's own α outstanding. If they do not agree within a tolerance, the metrics are marked unverified rather than shown as fact.
A concentration figure computed from a partial scan is not a slightly-wrong figure; it is a wrong one, and it would understate concentration in exactly the situation where that matters most.
Why this one is expensive
Holdings are keyed by hotkey, then coldkey, then subnet. Because the subnet is the last key, there is no way to ask the chain for one subnet's holders — the whole map has to be walked.
That is why it runs as a scheduled full scan rather than on demand, and why it may be switched off entirely on a shared server.