Not every upgrade needs fireworks: While some releases are about adding shiny new features, others are about tightening the foundations so the system can scale without cracking.
The upcoming Bittensor release falls into the second category.
Originally scheduled for this week and now postponed to early next week to give client teams more time to adapt, the update introduces structural changes to fees, validator incentives, staking mechanics, and MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) protection.
It may not look dramatic on the surface, but economically and architecturally, it is significant.
The Feature Updates, Made Simple
Here are the most important additions and adjustments.
1. Voting Power Within Subnets
Through this upgrade, subnets will gain enhanced “voting power” functionality (practically, this would strengthen internal governance mechanics).
Influence inside subnets becomes clearer and more structured, allowing subnet ecosystems to operate with greater autonomy and coordination.
It is a quiet but meaningful decentralization improvement.
2. Coldkey Swap Rework
Coldkeys represent ownership, and Bittensor is looking forward to improving how ownership keys can be swapped and managed. This primarily benefits advanced operators who manage infrastructure.
While for everyday participants, there is no visible change; for operators, “key” management becomes cleaner and more secure.
3. Balancer Upgrade
This is a technical but important change: The balancer influences how emissions are distributed across the network.
This upgrade modifies this logic, and some custom clients may need to update their integrations.
4. add_stake_burn Feature
This refines staking mechanics and introduces improved handling of stake-related flows, and the broader theme here is precision.
The network’s economic plumbing is being made more deliberate and less loose.
Transaction Fee Changes: The Core Shift
This is the most visible adjustment, and one of the core component of this change is that:
1. Fees Increase by 10x
Transaction fees across the board will increase tenfold. Sounds dramatic? Context matters.
Bittensor’s fees are currently extremely low compared to most crypto ecosystems, even transactions designed to resist spam are so cheap that they offer little actual resistance.
The increase serves three purposes:
a. Reduce spam,
b. Prepare for incentivized validators under NPoS, and
c. Establish sustainable revenue for the ecosystem.
Even after the increase, fees remain competitive by industry standards. This is not about extracting value, it is about protecting the network.
2. Fees Now Go to Block Builders
Previously, transaction fees were recycled into pools. Going forward, they will go directly to the block builder.
This changes incentive alignment:
a. Validators earn directly from network activity,
b. Abandoned or inactive subnets no longer receive artificial liquidity support, and
c. Revenue flows to those performing the work.
The existing 0.05% staking fee does not increase, it is simply redirected to block builders instead of being recycled.
Modeling indicates minimal impact on active subnets, while reducing distortion in inactive ones.
MEV Shield Hotfix: Closing the Loop
One of the upcoming upgrades coming to the ecosystem is a rapid hotfix sequence to update MEV Shield.
Here is what is happening: MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) refers to profits gained by manipulating transaction ordering and MEV Shield was designed to prevent that.
However, its current behavior allows decrypted transactions to enter the mempool earlier than intended.
The fix is expected to be scheduled in three stages:
a. Temporarily Disable MEV Shield: During this window, MEV Shield transactions will fail to submit,
b. Upgrade Mainnet Nodes: At this stage, there is an expected downtime of ~10 minutes, and
c. MEV Shield re-enabled under corrected logic.
After this update, decrypted transactions will remain held by the block builder until execution, eliminating remaining MEV exposure.
Though, there would be brief disruption, security “always” takes priority.
The Bigger Picture
Early-stage networks subsidize growth with ultra-low fees and recycled incentives, and maturing networks strengthen their economics.
This release signals that Bittensor ($TAO) is moving from permissive expansion toward structural durability:
a. Spam resistance over ultra-cheap execution,
b. Direct validator revenue over recycled liquidity,
c. Refined staking mechanics over loose flows, and
d. MEV protection aligned with the original design.
These are the upgrades you implement when you expect scale.
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