TAO tokenomics
The tokenomic framework of $TAO is similar to that of Bitcoin, adopting a hard cap of 21 million coins as the maximum supply that will ever be minted, along with a halving cycle that occurs every four years. [1]
Approximately every 12 seconds, a block is completed, and a reward of 1 $TAO is distributed among Miners, Validators, Subnets owners and delegators. This results in the emmision of 7,200 $TAO daily. Once half of the total $TAO supply has been issued, the rate at which new $TAO are created will be reduced by 50%. For instance, by the 12th halving event, projected to happen in 2069, the total amount of $TAO in existence is expected to be around 20,994,873 $TAO.
The first halving event for $TAO is anticipated to occur around September 2025. Consequently, the quantity of $TAO in circulation is expected to equal the current amount of Bitcoin in circulation by the year 2037.[2]
The implementation of Recycling, a process where $TAO tokens spent on Miners registration fees are returned to the pool, effectively delays the date of the halving event.
The cost of registration within Subnets fluctuates based on the number of Miners seeking to join. If the total daily expenses for registration surpass the daily emission of $TAO, the currency could, in theory, become deflationary.
$TAO was fair launched, meaning there were no pre-mined tokens or Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs).[3]
Currently the transaction cost is 0.000000150 $TAO or 150 RAO (1 $TAO = 1,000,000,000 RAO)
Staking (Delegation) is natively supported.
Resources:
"Bittensor Paradigm" by Jacob Stevens "Const":
[1] https://bittensor.com/about
Taostats by mogmachine
"TAO Token Economy Explained" by Opentensor Foundation:
[3] https://opentensor.medium.com/tao-token-economy-explained-17a3a90cd44e