Register, Validate and Mine
To participate as a subnet validator or subnet miner, you must register first. Registration means registering your keys with your preferred subnet and purchasing a UID slot in that subnet.
You do not have to create a subnet to mine or validate on the Bittensor network. See the Checklist for Validating and Mining for information on mining and validating on Bittensor.
Register
Run the following command on your terminal, replacing the <your_preferred_netuid>, <my_coldkey>, <my_hotkey>.
The <your_preferred_netuid> is the netuid of your preferred subnet.
btcli subnet register --netuid <your_preferred_netuid> --wallet.name <my_coldkey> --wallet.hotkey <my_hotkey>
For example: For subnet 1 (netuid of 1)
btcli subnet register --netuid 1 --wallet.name test-coldkey --wallet.hotkey test-hotkey
Registering works like this:
- When you run the above command, you have purchased a UID slot in the subnet of your choice.
- Your hotkey, which is part of your wallet, becomes the holder of the UID slot. The terms "account" and "hotkey" are used synonymously.
Ownership belongs to a hotkey. Hence, for example, when you delegate your TAO to a subnet validator, you attach your delegated TAO to the hotkey of the subnet validator. See Delegation.
A hotkey can hold multiple UIDs across separate subnets. However, within one subnet, each UID must have a unique hotkey.
After registering your keys, you can become either a subnet miner or a subnet validator. Note that they have different requirements. See below.
While wallet transactions like delegating, transfer, registering, and staking can be performed on a Windows machine using WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux), mining and validating are not recommended or supported on Windows machines.
Running a subnet validator
To become a subnet validator, you must:
- Register your keys to the subnet (as described above).
- Stake sufficient TAO on your hotkey to secure a validator permit.
Staking
See also Delegation
You stake by attaching TAO to your hotkey. Attaching TAO to your hotkey can be achieved in two ways:
Stake your own TAO
You can do this by staking your own TAO funds to your hotkey, which holds the UID in the subnet where you want to validate.
# Stake funds to your hotkey account within the subnet.
btcli stake add --wallet.name <my_coldkey> --wallet.hotkey <my_hotkey>
Example:
btcli stake add --wallet.name test-coldkey --wallet.hotkey test-hotkey
Attract delegated stake
You can also increase your stake by attracting delegated stake from the nominators. For this, you must first nominate your hotkey as a delegate and then advertise this hotkey. The nominators can then delegate their TAO to your hotkey.
# Nominate your hotkey as a delegate
btcli root nominate --wallet.name <my_coldkey> --wallet.hotkey <my_hotkey>
Example:
btcli root nominate --wallet.name test-coldkey --wallet.hotkey test-hotkey
See Becoming a delegate for specific steps.
Validator permit
Only the top 64 validators, when ranked by their stake amount in any particular subnet, are considered to have a validator permit. Only these top 64 subnet validators with permits are considered active in the subnet.
Calculate TAO required
The amount of TAO needed to acquire a validator permit depends on how the other largest 64 wallets distribute TAO across themselves. You can calculate the minimum using bt.metagraph:
import bittensor as bt
subnet = bt.metagraph(1)
top_64_stake = sorted(subnet.S)[-64:]
print (f'Current requirement for validator permits based on the top 64 stake stands at {min(top_64_stake)} tao')
Check the permit status
Replace the string values for the name (<my_coldkey>) and hotkey (<my_validator_hotkey>) with your own.
This information can be obtained from the metagraph using your UID.
import bittensor as bt
subnet = bt.metagraph(1)
wallet = bt.wallet( name = 'my_coldkey', hotkey = 'my_validator_hotkey' )
my_uid = subnet.hotkeys.index( wallet.hotkey.ss58_address )
print(f'Validator permit: {subnet.validator_permit(my_uid)}')
Running a subnet miner
After registering your key to the subnet, you can start mining. You can run your own miner or select miner modules that are provided in the subnet codebase.
Note that to run a miner, you do not need any stake. You only need to register.
If you plan to run an existing miner module, make sure to read the documentation for the specific subnet, including the node requirements for the miner you want to run. See Preparing for Subnet for more details.
Moving a subnet miner to a different machine
Once your subnet miner has begun mining, you can change it to a different machine, but proceed with caution.
Always minimize any downtime for your subnet miner. Missing validation requests can significantly damage the incentive and rewards of your subnet miner.
To move a subnet miner from one machine to another, follow the below guidelines in this order:
- Start the subnet miner on the new machine.
- Wait for the old miner to stop receiving requests from the subnet validators.
- Stop the old miner.
It can take the subnet validators some time to realize that the IP of the Axon for your subnet miner has changed.
Miner deregistration
A subnet miner can be deregistered if its performance is poor. Mining is competitive—and the UID slots are limited. Except in Subnet 1, all subnets have 256 UID slots per subnet. Of these 256 UID slots, a subnet can have a maximum of 64 subnet validator UIDs and 192 (i.e., 256-64) UIDs for subnet miners.
A poor performing miner occupying a UID risks being replaced by a newly registered miner who then occupies this UID. It works like this:
- Every subnet has an
immunity_periodhyperparameter expressed in a number of blocks.SeeSee
immunity_period. - A subnet miner or a subnet validator at a UID (in that subnet) has the duration of
immunity_periodduring which this miner or validator must improve its performance. When theimmunity_periodexpires for a miner or a validator, they risk being deregistered, but only if their performance is the worst in the subnet. Specifically, if, at the end of itsimmunity_period, the emission to a subnet miner is the lowest in the subnet, then this subnet miner will be deregistered when a new registration request arrives. - The
immunity_periodstarts when a subnet validator or a subnet miner is registered into the subnet.
See the below subnet miner timeline diagram illustrating how registration works:
- Blocks are processed in the subtensor (Bittensor blockchain) every 12 seconds.
- A subnet miner registers a hotkey and receives a UID—and its immunity period starts.
- The subnet miner starts running and publishes its Axon's
IP:PORTfor the subnet validators. - The subnet validators refresh their metagraph and will be aware of the hotkey change on the UID and the new miner Axon's
IP:PORTinformation. - The subnet validators send requests to the subnet miner's Axon and evaluate the responses, i.e., they participate in the subnet's incentive mechanism. Based on their responses, the subnet miner will receive an emission award.
- While in
immunity_period, the subnet miner slowly builds its emissions, starting with no history. - At the end of the
immunity_periodfor this subnet miner, its performance is scored against all other subnet miners that were similarly out of theirimmunity_periodin this subnet. If this subnet miner's performance (i.e., emission) is the lowest, then at the next registration request, this poor-performing subnet miner's UID will be transferred to the newly registered hotkey.
As shown in the above picture, a subnet miner's emission may not always grow as a continuous graph. The emission may only be updated at the end of the tempo periods, or the subnet validators might have internal mechanisms that update faster than the subnet's tempo. For example, a subnet validator might discover new subnet miners and update its metagraph every 100 blocks to ensure that the metagraph will always have the latest information.
Inspecting UIDs
After you obtain a UID slot, you can view the status of your registered wallet by running the following:
btcli wallet overview --netuid
After providing your wallet name at the prompt, you will see the following output:
| Parameter | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| COLDKEY | my_coldkey | The name of the coldkey associated with your slot. |
| HOTKEY | my_first_hotkey | The name of the hotkey associated with your slot. |
| UID | 5 | The index of the uid out of available uids. |
| ACTIVE | True | Whether or not the uid is considered active. |
| STAKE(τ) | 71.296 | The amount of stake in this wallet. |
| RANK | 0.0629 | This miner's absolute ranking according to validators on the network. |
| TRUST | 0.2629 | This miner's trust as a proportion of validators on the network. |
| CONSENSUS | 0.89 | This validator's aggregate consensus score. |
| INCENTIVE | 0.029 | This miner's incentive, TAO emission, is attained via mining. |
| DIVIDENDS | 0.001 | This validator's dividends, TAO emission, are attained via validating. |
| EMISSION | 29_340_153 | This miner's total emission in RAO ( 10-9 TAO ) per block. |
| VTRUST | 0.96936 | This validator's trust score as a validator. |
| VPERMIT | * | Whether this miner is considered active for validating on this subnetwork. |
| UPDATED | 43 | Blocks since this miner set weights on the chain. |
| AXON | 131.186.56.85:8091 | The entrypoint advertised by this miner on the bittensor blockchain. |
| HOTKEY_SS58 | 5F4tQyWr... | The raw ss58 encoded the address of the miner's hotkey. |
Meaning of ACTIVE
In the above table, the ACTIVE row applies only to UIDs that are subnet validators. It shows whether the UID is actively setting the weights within the activity_cutoff window. If the UID has not set weights on the blockchain for the activity_cutoff duration, then the Yuma Consensus will consider this subnet validator offline, i.e., turned off (False).
Checking the registration status
To check your UID's registration status, use any of the Python code fragments below. To use these code fragments:
- Using Python interpreter: A straightforward way is to type "python" or "python3" on your macOS or Linux terminal, opening up a Python interpreter. Copy and paste the entire code fragment into it, hit "Return", and see the output.
- Using Python binary: You can also use the Python binary. Copy the code fragment into a file, say, "check_reg.py", and run the command
python3 check_reg.pyorpython check_reg.pyon your terminal command line and see the output.
With SS58 hotkey
In the below code, replace the hotkey field value with the SS58 version of your hotkey:
import bittensor as bt
# Replace below with your SS58 hotkey
hotkey = "5HEo565WAy4Dbq3Sv271SAi7syBSofyfhhwRNjFNSM2gP9M2"
network = "finney"
sub = bt.subtensor(network)
print(f"Registration status for hotkey {hotkey} is: {sub.is_hotkey_registered(hotkey)}")
With SS58 hotkey and netuid
In the below code, replace the hotkey field value with the SS58 version of your hotkey and the netuid field value with the netuid of the subnet you have registered into:
import bittensor as bt
# Replace below with your SS58 hotkey
hotkey = "5HEo565WAy4Dbq3Sv271SAi7syBSofyfhhwRNjFNSM2gP9M2"
network = "finney"
netuid = 1 # subnet uid
sub = bt.subtensor(network)
mg = sub.metagraph(netuid)
if hotkey not in mg.hotkeys:
print(f"Hotkey {hotkey} deregistered")
else:
print(f"Hotkey {hotkey} is registered")
With UID and SS58 hotkey
Additionally, if you also know your UID, replace uid value with your UID:
import bittensor as bt
# Replace below with your SS58 hotkey
hotkey = "5HEo565WAy4Dbq3Sv271SAi7syBSofyfhhwRNjFNSM2gP9M2"
network = "finney"
netuid = 1 # subnet uid
sub = bt.subtensor(network)
mg = sub.metagraph(netuid)
uid = 2 # Your UID
registered = mg.hotkeys[uid] == hotkey
if not registered:
print(f"Miner at uid {uid} not registered")
else:
print(f"Miner at uid {uid} registered")