MECHANISM DESIGN
Weekly Briefing • Jan 12, 2026 – Jan 16, 2026
TL;DR
The announcement of Manako on subnet 44 marks a pivotal milestone for Bittensor, initiating the transition toward products capable of generating real-world revenue with a target of 100 million dollars in annual recurring revenue. In parallel, growing community speculation regarding a potential expansion to 256 subnets is fueling market theses of a supply shock for TAO, reinforcing its industrial utility.
Network security has also reached a new level with the deployment of MEVShield, a protection layer that now forces malicious actors to pivot toward more complex behavioral analysis strategies. Finally, ground-level data reflects an increased demand for performance: subnet 6 is undergoing a brutal miner selection phase driven by its foundation, while subnet 5 has been officially declared inactive by the protocol.
To run a subnet is to be a ruler of a nation of citizens with access to private money, encrypted comms, permission-less access, and identity duplication. Rather than ban (you cant ban) rather than control (you can’t control) rather than trace (you can’t find), you are FORCED to align — to wrestle with making your system strong irrespective of attackers.
This is the profundity of mechanism design.
Jacob - Bittensor Co-founder
Operational Signal: Manako and Vision AI
The narrative is shifting significantly. The focus is now on Annual Recurring Revenue rather than simple token emissions.
