Bittensor Update: Root Claim
Bittensor core devs announced an upcoming mainnet upgrade introducing Root Claim, a change that gives users control over how root dividends are realized. The team plans to roll it out to devnet/testnet later this week and mainnet early next week.
What’s changing
- New default — Swap (important): If you do nothing, your accumulated root alpha will be swapped to TAO at claim time and added to your root stake.
- Opt-in to Keep alpha: Prefer alpha exposure? Call set_root_claim_type(Keep) to have future claims remain in alpha.
- Auto-claim: Each block, a few accounts are randomly selected for automatic claiming (on average ~once every two days per account, but randomness means it can vary). 5 auto-claims per block by default.
- Per-subnet minimum claim (RootClaimableThreshold): 0.0005 alpha by default; subnet owners may change this.
- Your Keep/Swap choice is honored during auto-claim (helps mitigate MEV while keeping regular claims).
Manual claim: You can call claim_root() anytime to claim without waiting for auto-claim.
Why it’s better
- User choice: Pick between alpha growth (Keep) or TAO stability (Swap) on root.
- Smoother markets & accounting: Claims are staggered across blocks, reducing bursty sell pressure.
- Potential alpha support: If more participants Keep rather than Swap, root sell pressure falls, which can support alpha price.
Breaking changes for builders & tooling
Removed storage:TaoDividendsPerSubnet, PendingAlphaSwapped, PendingRootDivs
New sources of truth:PendingRootAlphaDivs, RootClaimable, RootClaimed, RootClaimType,StakingColdkeysByIndex, StakingColdkeys, NumStakingColdkeys,NumRootClaim, RootClaimableThreshold, AlphaMapLastKey
RPC impact: Fields that previously exposed pending root TAO now return 0 (root is no longer pre-swapped). To display “pending root,” compute:(RootClaimable × root stake) − RootClaimed (per hotkey/subnet).
What to do now
- Users: Decide your preference and, if you want to hold alpha, set RootClaimType to Keep before the mainnet rollout.
- Operators/Tooling: Update storage reads and UIs to the new fields; revise “pending” calculations as above; expose the per-subnet RootClaimableThreshold.
This upgrade puts the realization of rewards back in your hands while dialing down market friction—cleaner claims, clearer choices.
