On December 11 TGIFT community call (watch below), the Bittensor team (including Const and Shib) shared a set of upgrades aimed at making the network safer and more professional, especially for people who stake TAO.​

With the halving just days away and new institutional interest coming in, the team focused on strengthening the network, improving security, and cutting out subnets that are not adding value.

Here is a simple summary of everything you need to know.

1. The “Superburn”

The biggest news was a new weapon against “zombie subnets” (projects that receive emissions without doing any real work).

• The Problem: The team found that Subnet 91 had been taking rewards since July without providing value. The owners refused to stop.
• The Solution: The OTF developers started creating a “Superburn” contract.
• Instead of the money going to the lazy subnet owner, the system will be able to take that money and instantly destroy it. The bad actors will get nothing, while it actually costs them money to stay online.

2. MEV Shield

If you trade crypto, you know about “bots” that jump in front of your trade to steal a little bit of profit. This is called “front-running.”  

The biggest security change is MEV Shield, a feature that hides sensitive transactions so bots cannot front‑run or sandwich users when they stake or move TAO.

• The Fix: Bittensor launched the MEV Shield.
• How It Works: It hides where your transaction is coming from and changes the timing to confuse the bots. It makes trading fairer for regular people.

3. Staking: Pick Your Winners

We recently talked about the new KEEP vs. SWAP vs. DELEGATE options for rewards. The team announced you can now be even more specific.

• Granular Control: You don’t have to choose one setting for everything. You can decide to “Keep” the tokens for the specific projects you like (e.g., holding BitMind tokens) and “Swap” the rest into TAO automatically.
• Coming Soon: A “Delegate” option where your validator handles this strategy for you.

4. Market News

Two huge financial events are happening right now:

• Grayscale is Live: The Grayscale Bittensor Trust started trading publicly (Ticker: GTAO). This lets big institutional investors buy in easily.
• The Halving: On Sunday, December 14, the network will cut the supply of new TAO in half. This makes the token much scarcer.

Conclusion

This TGIFT was not a casual update. It was all about strengthening the network before the halving.

Bittensor is improving security, giving users more control, removing bad actors, and welcoming new institutional attention. The timing shows the network is entering a more mature phase, with better tools and higher standards for everyone involved.