Tao
The token of the Bittensor network
In Asian philosophy, Tao is the natural way of the universe, an unexplainable force that is an important part of everyday life. It gets its name from the Chinese character which means “the way” or “the path”. If you are a Star Wars fan - think “The Force.”
The tao token similarly pervades into every part of the Bittensor ecosystem. Tao is the token that is foundational to all of the tokens earned by core participants of the Bittensor network.
For a high-level overview, the Tokenomics page has a great history and background of the tao token.
Tao Emission
Section titled “Tao Emission”One block is written to the Bittensor blockchain approximately every 12 seconds.
For every block written, 0.5 tao is created (in the current halving cycle — the first halving occurred in December 2025). (see Tao Emission Distribution for details)
This means a maximum of 3600 tao are created every day. If a block takes longer to be produced, this can lower the daily emitted blocks.
You can visualise the chain block production at taostats
Distribution of Emitted tao
Section titled “Distribution of Emitted tao”The emitted tao is distributed to the subnet pools of each subnet. As of 2026-06-23, the distribution is determined by root_proportion × subnet-price EMA × (1 − miner_burned), renormalized across subnets. See Tao Emission and Price-based subnet emission shares.
With 0.5 tao per block, the emission % is the percentage of the tao awarded to each subnet.
Recycling
Section titled “Recycling”Recycled tao is tao that is removed from circulation back into the unissued supply.
Burned
Section titled “Burned”Tao can be burned, this is tao that is no longer in circulation, and is no longer accessible.
tao vs. rao
Section titled “tao vs. rao”1 billionth of a tao is a rao. 10^9 rao = 1 tao. The Bittensor network has a hard limit of 21,000,000 (21 million) tao.
Halving
Section titled “Halving”Bittensor follows the halving schedule of Bitcoin. The first halving occurred in December 2025 when 10.5M tao had been emitted; block emission dropped from 1 tao to 0.5 tao per block at that point.