News·Opentensor YouTube·Apr 16, 2026, 22:54 UTC

How 'Conviction' Ends Crypto Rug Pulls on Bittensor

Summary In this AMA and community update, Const addresses the Bittensor ecosystem regarding the network's first major "rug pull" exploit, which was carried out by a former colleague. Rather than relying on centralized authorities or slow legal systems to fix these issues, Const introduces a new cryptographic governance primitive called "Conviction". This proposed upgrade aims to give power back to token holders, protect investors from malicious subnet owners, and ensure that those running subnets have verifiable, long-term "skin in the game".What is the "Conviction" Mechanism? Conviction is a proposed token-locking system designed to make subnet ownership mutable and accountable. See learnbittensor.org for how this draft proposal works: https://learnbittensor.org/concepts/tokenomics/locked-stake#subnet-ownership Here is a brief overview of how it works: - The Formula: Conviction is calculated as Stake multiplied by Time. It represents how much ownership is locked into the network's future. - Linear Unlocking: Token holders can lock their Alpha tokens for a specific duration (e.g., 1,000 Alpha for 365 days), which then unlocks slowly on a linear curve over that period. - Mutable Ownership: By locking stake, the community can vote on who holds the subnet owner key. If an owner acts maliciously, the community can collectively lock their tokens to a new key to transfer ownership and protect their investments. - Delegated Conviction: Subnet teams, miners, and outside investors can delegate their conviction by locking their stake to an owner's key to cryptographically prove their support and long-term trust in that team. - Rollout Strategy: The feature will initially launch as an optional primitive on the chain. It will then be selectively tested on compromised subnets (like 3, 39, and 81) to help the community regain control. Eventually, it will be rolled out to all mature subnets, while newly registered subnets will be granted an "immunity period" to establish themselve

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