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Price-based subnet emission shares (with miner-burn scaling)

The live share formula

Section titled “The live share formula”

Each block, Subtensor computes the slice of TAO emission going to each emit-enabled subnet. The share is no longer a TAO-flow function. It is now:

share_i ∝ root_proportion_i × price_i × (1 − miner_burned_i)

renormalized across emit-enabled subnets. Three signals compose:

  1. price_i — the subnet’s exponential moving average price, SubnetMovingPrice, normalized across emit-enabled subnets. Market valuation of the subnet’s alpha drives its TAO slice.
  2. root_proportion_i — defined in Root Emissions as tao_on_root / (tao_on_root + alpha_issued). Shrinks as a subnet’s alpha issuance grows over time, so this term reallocates emission away from older subnets toward newer ones, easing entry for newly-registered subnets.
  3. (1 − miner_burned_i) — MinerBurned is the proportion of the subnet’s last-tempo miner (incentive) emission that was withheld from miners by being directed to owner-owned or owner-immune hotkeys. Subnets that burn more of their miner emission receive proportionally less chain emission; the deficit reallocates to non-burning subnets.

Fallback

Section titled “Fallback”

If the combined weighted sum is zero (e.g. all subnets at full burn, or no root stake on any subnet), the chain falls back to root_proportion × price shares — i.e. the formula drops the (1 − miner_burned) term but keeps root_proportion. There is no path that resolves to raw unweighted price.

What changed, in two commits

Section titled “What changed, in two commits”

The live behavior is the composition of two PRs, both on chain:

PR #2779 — Price-based shares (gztensor)

Section titled “PR #2779 — Price-based shares (gztensor)”
  • get_shares replaces the TAO-flow basis with SubnetMovingPrice. Emission is proportional to normalized price over emit-enabled subnets.
  • Alpha-injection cap becomes root_proportion × alpha_emission. The gap between alpha_emission and this cap is no longer minted as pool liquidity; it is routed into chain buys of alpha instead.
  • Affected emission tests updated; obsolete TAO-flow share tests removed.

The mechanical consequence: older, low-root_proportion subnets transition from receiving alpha as liquidity injection to receiving it via on-chain buys. This is a structural shift in how alpha enters circulation and is the change that makes the previous TAO-flow framing obsolete.

PR #2781 — Miner-burn scaling (unconst)

Section titled “PR #2781 — Miner-burn scaling (unconst)”
  • New per-subnet storage MinerBurned: NetUid → U96F32 holding the proportion (0..1) of each tempo’s miner emission withheld via owner or owner-immune hotkeys. Set every tempo from the incentive-distribution path, where validator-set incentive weights determine which hotkeys receive emission.
  • get_shares reweighted by (1 − miner_burned) and renormalized.
  • Recycle bypass closed. Miner emission directed to an owner/immune hotkey counts toward the burn whether it is Burn or Recycle under the subnet’s RecycleOrBurn config. There is no toggle that escapes the penalty.
  • All-full-burn fallback added: if every emit-enabled subnet’s (1 − miner_burned) is zero (or the weighted sum is otherwise zero), the share formula falls back to root_proportion × price so emission still flows.
  • Dissolve cleanup. MinerBurned is cleared when a subnet is removed, so deregistered subnets leave no stale proportion in storage.
  • Test coverage added for no-burn, partial burn, full burn, all-full-burn fallback, and root_proportion-favoring-newer-subnets cases.

Why this matters

Section titled “Why this matters”

For subnet owners

Section titled “For subnet owners”
  • Owner-self-emission is now penalized at the chain level, not just socially. Subnets routing miner incentive to owner/immune hotkeys via validator-weight choices get proportionally less chain emission the next tempo. The penalty applies whether the withheld incentive is burned or recycled — no RecycleOrBurn toggle escapes it.
  • root_proportion works in your favor when you’re new. A newly registered subnet has a relatively high root_proportion (low alpha issuance), giving it a structurally larger share for a given price than an older subnet at the same price. Entry is materially eased.
  • Alpha supply for low-root_proportion subnets shifts to chain buys. Pool depth dynamics change: less fresh alpha minted as liquidity, more TAO going into on-chain buy-side pressure on alpha. Expect different slippage and order-flow profiles on older subnets.

For validators and stakers

Section titled “For validators and stakers”
  • Emission allocation is market-driven via the EMA, not validator-flow. A subnet’s TAO slice is now set by SubnetMovingPrice × the two scaling terms, not by aggregate validator TAO weight. Validator weights still determine within-subnet incentive distribution (and now feed back into MinerBurned), but no longer determine between-subnet TAO allocation directly.
  • MinerBurned is set by validator weights every tempo. If validators weight an owner/immune hotkey, that incentive is “withheld” from the miner pool and counts toward the subnet’s burn proportion next tempo.
  • TAO-flow framing is dead. Any explainer, dashboard label, or analysis that treats subnet emission as a function of validator TAO flow is now describing pre-2779 behavior. Mental model: emission share is a function of price, age (via root_proportion), and owner-extraction behavior (via MinerBurned).

Source provenance

Section titled “Source provenance”
  • PR #2779 — get_shares price-EMA basis + root_proportion × alpha_emission cap. Author: gztensor.
  • PR #2781 — MinerBurned storage, (1 − miner_burned) reweighting, recycle/burn equivalence, dissolve cleanup, all-full-burn fallback. Author: unconst.
  • Code anchors (subtensor main):
    • pallets/subtensor/src/coinbase/run_coinbase.rs — get_subnet_terms (root_proportion-capped alpha injection), MinerBurned::insert(netuid, withheld_proportion) at the end of the incentive distribution loop.
    • root_proportion definition consumed via Self::root_proportion(netuid).
    • SubnetMovingPrice and the EMA update logic live alongside the swap interface; consult pallets/subtensor/src for the exact half-life parameter.

Cross-references that need follow-on edits

Section titled “Cross-references that need follow-on edits”

These pages still frame emission in pre-2779 terms and should be updated to point here:

Status

Section titled “Status”
  • 2026-06-22. PR #2779 detected (testnet merge), stub explainer drafted.
  • 2026-06-23. PR #2781 merged, system composed live on chain. This page rewritten as a current-state explainer. Doug fact-checked the parameter definitions. Rufus deep-dive on SubnetMovingPrice EMA params outstanding.