Ecosystems do not mature by accident; they mature when builders realize that technology alone is no longer enough.
That realization was at the heart of the emergency Hash Rate Podcast video chat hosted by Mark Jeffrey, joined by Jose Rios and Etienne Leroy from Bittensor Commons. What began as a brief update quickly turned into a meaningful announcement about where Bittensor is heading next, and how the community plans to show up on the global stage.
The conversation highlighted that Bittensor is ready for its next chapter, and that chapter starts with coordination, visibility, and builders.
The Guests
Jose Rios brings decades of experience building and supporting large-scale technology communities. After 25 years at Intel, where he participated in open-source initiatives and industry standard bodies, he founded BT Labs with a focus on infrastructure, mining, and subnet development within Bittensor. His involvement comes not from theory, but from lived experience across multiple technology cycles.
Etienne Leroy, a director at OTF, followed a very different path. His background is in game development, including 6 years working on the FIFA franchise at EA Sports. Although non-technical by training, he has been connected to Bittensor since its earliest days and became deeply involved as the ecosystem evolved, later joining OTF and helping organize international outreach efforts.
Together, their perspectives converge on one point. Bittensor has reached a scale where informal coordination is no longer enough.
The Gap No One Owned
Bittensor’s structure has always been deliberate. It launched fairly, without marketing allocations or centralized control. OTF focused on core technology, while community members organically carried the narrative forward through podcasts, research, and subnet development.
For a long time, this worked remarkably well.
But as Etienne explained, the absence of a dedicated structure for large ecosystem events became increasingly visible. Major conferences require long-planning cycles, significant budgets, and sustained operational effort. Subnet teams, by design, are focused on shipping products and running live systems.
The result was a gap. Not because of lack of energy or talent, but a lack of ownership.
Why Events Matter at This Stage
Jose framed the issue from the perspective of someone who has spent decades attending and organizing global conferences.
Serious industry events are not improvised. They are planned far in advance, aligned with cultural and industry moments, and designed to compete for attention against well funded incumbents. Without that planning, even the strongest technology can struggle to be seen or understood.
More importantly, events create community in ways that online interaction cannot. Many contributors work remotely, often in isolation. When people finally meet in person, trust forms faster, ideas move more freely, and collaboration accelerates.
The appetite for that connection was already evident in smaller community meetups. What was missing was a neutral, long-term structure to support something bigger.
Introducing Bittensor Commons
Out of these conversations came Bittensor Commons. Bittensor Commons is a non-profit organization created to support, organize, and steward events for the Bittensor ecosystem. Its role is intentionally neutral and community focused.
This is not tied to a single subnet, it is not a commercial venture and exists to serve the ecosystem as a whole.
As Jose noted, events rarely generate surplus. Every dollar tends to go back into production, logistics, and improving the experience. The objective is not profit; Cohesion, education, and long-term growth is.
The Announcement: Exploit Summit
The first major initiative under Bittensor Commons is Exploit Summit.
Exploit Summit is a new builder-focused conference designed to introduce Bittensor to a broader technical audience while deepening engagement within the existing community.
Key details of the event include:
a. Location: San Francisco, USA
b. Dates: March 30 and 31, 2026
c. Venue: The Midway (Just blocks from OpenAI)
San Francisco was a deliberate choice as it remains the global center of AI talent, yet Bittensor has never hosted a major event there. Exploit Summit is about showing up where the conversation is already happening and offering a credible alternative.
Not a Crypto Conference
One point was emphasized repeatedly during the discussion: Exploit Summit is not a crypto conference, it’s not designed around token promotion, not aimed at investor roadshows, and certainly not built on hype.
Instead, the focus is on builders, developers, researchers, and engineers who may be skeptical of crypto, but deeply interested in efficiency, incentive design, and open systems.
As Mark highlighted, many of these builders do not yet realize that Bittensor allows teams to deploy subnets and collaborate with hundreds of global contributors, whose work is compensated by the network itself. That single insight often changes how people think about what is possible.
What Attendees Can Expect
Exploit Summit is being designed with multiple tracks to serve different audiences without sacrificing depth.
Planned programmes include:
a. A Technical Track focused on incentive mechanisms, subnet architecture, and real-world outcomes,
b. An Ecosystem Track exploring where Bittensor is heading and why incentive-based computation matters,
c. Sessions covering major network developments and upgrades, and
d. Beginner-friendly content designed to make Bittensor approachable without oversimplification.
There are also plans to support newcomers before the event, helping them arrive with enough context to fully engage from day one.
Why This Moment Matters
Throughout the conversation, a broader pattern emerged. Bittensor today resembles other transformative technologies in their early phases: Powerful, misunderstood, and difficult to explain succinctly. Over time, language sharpens, examples accumulate, and clarity follows.
Exploit Summit is part of that process. A forcing function for better explanations, better demonstrations, and a shared narrative that can travel beyond the existing community.
By putting a date on the calendar, the ecosystem commits to showing up prepared.
An Open Invitation
Bittensor Commons and Exploit Summit are community efforts. The guests encouraged feedback, speaker suggestions and sponsorship support.
They also implored interested persons to follow through with Exploit Summit on their official channels or join the mailing list for early access and announcements.
Looking Ahead
This initiative marks a shift in how Bittensor presents itself to the world: From ad-hoc coordination to intentional presence, isolated efforts to shared momentum and strong technology to a visible ecosystem.
As the conversation closed, the sentiment was clear. This is how ecosystems grow up which is by investing not only in code, but in people, places, and shared experiences.
Exploit Summit is the first step.
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