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A new line of code submitted to GitHub last Wednesday could reconfigure the economy of Bittensor, the decentralized AI network behind the TAO token. The proposal, called Root Reborn, was developed under the pseudonym “unconst” and would shift how validators operate in the ecosystem, effectively moving toward an on-chain fund-manager-style accumulation approach rather than automatic liquidation.
According to the proposal’s description, the change is intended to alter the way rewards are handled: instead of converting certain subnet “alpha” tokens into TAO through automatic liquidation before root-layer staking yields are paid, the mechanism would reinvest the previously liquidated yields into selected subnets and return the result to validators as stake.
Data cited from Glassnode indicates the Bittensor network distributes approximately 7,200 TAO per day. At the prices recorded at the time of the report, that daily emission is valued at more than $1.8 million. Because this capital is directly tied to the protocol’s reward distribution rules, any change to how it is liquidated or reinvested could have material market implications.
Under Bittensor’s current architecture, the protocol automatically liquidates the “alpha” tokens of each subnet to convert them into TAO before paying staking yields of the root layer. Technical analysis referenced in the article indicates this mechanism creates constant selling pressure on subnets’ native assets, influencing their price evolution.
Root Reborn proposes to reverse that dynamic. Rather than executing automatic sales, the proposal would allow each validator to choose a basket of specific subnets to support. The yields that were previously liquidated would be reinvested into the selected subnets, remaining as a compound portfolio and being returned to the validator in the form of stake.
The network has previously restructured its economic incentive design. In February 2025, the ecosystem implemented the Dynamic TAO (dTAO) mechanism, which removed a committee of validators’ power to allocate emissions and transferred that allocation directly to market forces.
Root Reborn would add an additional layer of human judgment on top of dTAO’s automation. At the block level, the article states that TAO emissions are split as follows: 41% to validators, 41% to artificial intelligence miners, and 18% to subnet creators. The proposal focuses specifically on modifying the management of the 41% portion allocated to validators.
Despite the interest generated, official reports from the repository state that the code is still under review in the testnet and has not been deployed to the mainnet.
Initial automated evaluations identified potential risks, including a bottleneck in large-volume data migration and payment routing failures. The article notes that a verifiable milestone for assessing viability will be whether these observations can be resolved in the GitHub testing environment prior to any community governance vote.
Ready Card users outside the European Economic Area have reportedly faced an abrupt service halt after a transition involving the card issuer disrupted the USDC spending product, according to user notices shared on X.
A notice shared…
