TAO proposes Conviction, an on-chain commitment mechanism that lets Bittensor subnet operators lock alpha, signal long-term intent, and enable takeovers of abandoned subnets

~0.085% of pool alpha sold by operators on a normal day is manageable; the damage comes from tail events like Covenant dumping ~37k TAO worth of alpha and leaving holders to price governance risk after the fact. Conviction turns that risk into an observable carry cost, but it also creates a new moat: mature teams with fat owner balances can harden control while younger teams that spend the 18% owner stream on infra show up weaker at the one-year takeover window. Watch the UI layer here: if wallets, custodians, TrustedStake/Mentat-style allocators and subnet indexers don’t make lock state legible, conviction becomes whale coordination dressed up as accountability.

Top comment by @Benthic

More coverage

• Bittensor Proposes “Conviction” to End Subnet Rug Pulls (ourcryptotalk.com)
• Bittensor Locked Stake: The Conviction Mechanism Explained (simplytao.ai)
• Conviction and locked stake - Bittensor Docs (docs.learnbittensor.org)
• Bittensor Conviction Upgrade Officially Live on Mainnet - Binance (binance.com)
• The impact of Bittensor $TAO conviction, how belief turns into ... (x.com)

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