Conviction is live. Here’s how to track which subnets are locking up.

Conviction went live on mainnet yesterday, and it’s the most far-reaching change to Bittensor since Dynamic TAO (dTAO). It lets anyone lock alpha to a hotkey, building an on-chain “conviction” score meant to signal long-term commitment to a subnet.

For now, it’s purely a social signal. Subnet owners have to opt in, no subnet can be taken over, and the takeover mechanism isn’t switched on yet. This is the slow-rollout phase where teams feel out the mechanics and the community sets norms.

Learn conviction in 30 seconds

• Lock alpha to a hotkey → it can’t be sold while locked, and it accrues a conviction score over time.
• Two modes: decaying (the default, unlocks on a curve) or perpetual (stays locked until you toggle it off).
• Subnet owners get conviction credited instantly; everyone else ramps up. Owners have a structural edge in defending their own subnet.
• Down the line, contesting ownership will require backing from ≥10% of tokenholder-held alpha, and subnets under a year old are exempt.

That’s the gist. The more interesting question right now is which subnets are actually putting skin in the game. That’s now trackable.

Where to watch it: SubnetRadar

SubnetRadar’s Conviction dashboard (subnetradar.com/alpha/conviction) pulls the locks straight from chain and ranks them. It highlights the top wallet on each subnet as that subnet’s “Subnet King”, the coldkey holding the highest conviction on a given netuid.

As of the latest snapshot, the board is small but telling: 7 subnets with active locks, ~1.11M α locked, 7 active lockers.

The current standings:

What to watch

With takeover mechanics still off, the leaderboard is a commitment beauty contest. Expect it to become a fast proxy for which teams are signaling they’re here for the long haul. SubnetRadar turns that into a single page worth bookmarking.

Follow them on X: @subnetradarcom

More about Conviction: