dTAO is turning 75 DAYS old tomorrow 🎂 It has been a incredible achievement in execution by @opentensor There is one key design decision that I believe is worth re-evaluating today with data we now have Reassessing TAO Weight for a Healthier dTAO Seventy-four days have passed since the launch of dynamic $TAO (dTAO). During the development phase, two key design decisions were proposed and debated: Exponential Moving Average (EMA) – This was revisited and revised soon after the launch. TAO Weight – Set at 0.18, it has not yet been revisited. Why TAO Weight Matters From the outset, TAO weight (0.18) was introduced to stabilize the early, illiquid period for subnets. The logic was that root stake would initially count more (receiving 100% of the weight at block 1) while alpha stakers gradually gained parity in TAO weight. Technically, 1 TAO on root is counted at 18% (0.18) compared to 1 TAO on alpha at 100%—a ratio designed so that root and alpha would eventually split 50/50 around 90 days out. The guiding principle behind dTAO is to encourage active participation in alpha subnets. While root stakers do bring early security and liquidity, we’ve now observed: Root stakers are currently receiving around 3,500 TAO/day, or ~49% of all TAO emitted to the pools. This level is even higher than the total 41% intended for all validators combined (root + alpha). The cause is that the total sum of subnet (alpha) prices is roughly ~2X, inflating the daily TAO distributions to root. Looking at the liquidity pools today, the total TAO in those pools is less than the total TAO emitted into them. This indicates extensive sell pressure—particularly from root—draining liquidity. If dTAO is to encourage broad participation beyond simply collecting emissions, we need to ensure that alpha tokens have stronger long-term incentives for validators and the community. Proposal: Introducing a TAO Weight Halving Schedule To address these issues, I propose a halving mechanism for TAO weight: Days 1–90: TAO weight remains 0.18 (as originally set). Day 91: TAO weight halves to 0.09. Day 180: Halves again. Day 270: Halves again. Day 360: Halves once more. By phasing out root’s elevated weight, alpha gradually gains more influence on the network. Subnets that have built sufficient liquidity and active validator communities will see alpha participation rewarded. This reflects the spirit of dTAO: to incentivize network usage, not just staking on root for guaranteed emissions.