Learn·Bittensor
What τ (TAO) is, and what it is used for
TAO is Bittensor's base token: the unit every α is priced in, what the chain mints each block to pay for work, and what you spend to enter a subnet.
Published 2026-09-17
The unit everything is priced in
Every subnet's α has a price only in τ: the pool's τ reserve divided by its α reserve. There is no dollar on the chain, and no subnet is priced against another except through τ.
The TAO/USD rate in the site header is an external source, display only: never used in a chain calculation. Every figure that does chain arithmetic on Taosis is in τ.
Where new τ comes from
The chain mints τ every block as emission and splits it between the subnets to pay for the work scored each tempo. It reaches a subnet through its pool — injected beside α, or spent buying α when there is more τ than α to pair it with.
Holding τ in a wallet earns none of that. Staking it does: into a subnet, which buys that subnet's α, or onto root, which stays one-to-one and takes a stake-weighted cut of every subnet's validator emission.
What τ is spent on
Buying α puts τ into a subnet's pool. A transaction carries a network fee in τ. Registering a new subnet has a lock cost in τ. All of it is paid from a coldkey's free balance — the τ that is not staked anywhere.
Stake is recorded against a validator's hotkey, but the validator can never move or withdraw it. Staking changes what your τ is exposed to, not who controls it.
What Taosis shows of it
An account page shows a wallet's free τ (spendable, not staked) and its staked value; the explorer works out whether an address is a coldkey or a hotkey before saying what it holds. The swap form shows the chain's own free balance and keeps back a fee buffer on MAX.
On the alerts page the TAO price itself can be watched in USD, independent of any subnet; the alert is held back rather than fired if the external feed is stale.
Read next
What dTAO is
Under dTAO a stake is a position in one subnet's pool, bought with τ and priced in it — not a share of the whole network.
Root (SN0)
Root is where τ is staked without buying anything: one-to-one, no pool, no price — and a cut of every subnet's validator emission.
What a wallet page shows
Paste any address: Taosis says what kind of key it is, what it holds at today's prices, what it paid where it can prove it, and what happened to it.