As Bittensor evolves from a Opentensor foundation-led structure to one owned by the community, the network's democratic functions are managed by two separate bodies: the Senate and the Triumvirate.

The Senate is a group of influential delegates who choose to be involved in decision-making and hold a significant amount of the network's total stake. Any network member can have their interests represented by delegating their stake to a Senate member who aligns with their views.

To be part of the Senate, a member must:

Register as a hotkey-coldkey pair with any sub-network.

Nominate themselves as a delegate to receive others' $TAO stakes.

Hold a stake (self-stake or through delegation) that is more than 2% of the total network stake.

Opt to join the Senate..^[1]

The Triumvirate, consisting of three members from the Opentensor Foundation, creates and implements proposals. They are not elected and cannot vote on their own proposals. The Senate decides if a proposal should be adopted into the network. ^[2]

[1] Bittensor Developer Documentation

https://docs.bittensor.com/senate

[2] Bittensor Developer Documentation

https://docs.bittensor.com/glossary#triumvirate