Bittensor Subnet 07: SubVortex

This subnet enables nodes to contribute storage space, using a prototype incentive mechanism similar to Filecoin. It provides decentralised storage solutions, allowing nodes to offer their hard drive space to the network, verified by validators using Yuma consensus.

Miner

Miners are responsible for setting up subtensor nodes and enabling connectivity for public peers. Ownership validation of subtensors by miners is crucial for maintaining network speed, decentralization, and integrity.

Validator

Validators are tasked with setting up Redis instances to gather miner information, validate subtensor ownership, and compute metrics for fair rewards.

Validators operate in several phases:

• Subtensor Phase: Focuses on verifying miner ownership of local subtensor nodes through connectivity checks.
• Metric Phase: Gathers diverse metrics such as download/upload speeds, latency, and geographical data to assess miner performance.
• Reward System: Scores miners based on availability, latency, reliability, and global distribution to promote network health and efficiency.

Subtensor & Bittensor

Subtensor is the brains of the the Bittensor network, it acts as the conduit for inputting and extracting data from the blockchain within the Bittensor ecosystem. SubVortex incentivizes running open local Subtensor nodes, akin to public roads, to complement the main “highway”. The focus is on maintaining high-speed, efficient private roads to the blockchain, ensuring decentralization and network resilience. Subtensors were previously run without incentivization, primarily for private secure pathways to enter or extract data from the blockchain. With the creation of this subnet, running a subtensor became obligatory for significant mining or validation to ensure security and independence from external servers.

Subtensors are designed for high availability, where if one goes down, you are directed to the next available one in the region, ensuring seamless operation. Use of load balancers for transactions is generally secure, with no known vulnerabilities discovered so far, although continuous monitoring and updates are crucial for security.

Local Subtensor Deployment

Running subtensors locally offers advantages in speed, reliability, and control over accessibility compared to the public Finney node. It enhances decentralization by empowering miners to manage their subtensor nodes efficiently. Running a subtensor node requires minimal resources like four vCPUs and 8GB of memory, without the need for GPU power. Entry costs are relatively low, with many optimizing their setups for improved performance.

Incentive Mechanism

SubVortex’s incentive mechanism scores miners based on several criteria of their subtensor node:

• Availability: Subtensor nodes must be reliable to ensure good uptime. This reward incentivizes miners to maintain high levels of uptime and accessibility. To assign a score for each miner, a connection with the subtensor will be established to retrieve the current block. The score is determined by the success rate of retrieving that block.
• Latency: Subtensor nodes must be efficient to ensure good performance. This reward incentivizes miners to provide low-latency services and minimize response times. The score for each miner is determined by the time taken to process the request, using a normalized method as part of the reward system. A distance-based weighting factor is incorporated into the scoring formula to account for geographical differences between validators and miners. Latency plays a key role in validator scoring on subnets, with lower latencies resulting in better performance.
• Reliability and Stability: Reliability is measured by the success-to-attempts ratio when accessing the subtensors, utilizing the Wilson scoring method for accuracy. The scoring mechanism adjusts based on the performance trend, incentivizing consistent and reliable operation. Emphasis on uptime and success rates balances the scores for latency, availability, and global distribution.
• Global Distribution: Subtensor nodes must be globally distributed to ensure wide reach. This reward incentivizes miners to effectively distribute subtensors across different geographical locations to optimize performance and reduce latency, enhancing the subnet experience.

The final score, used to set the weight, is an average of all these scores and will replace 5% of the weight of the previous scores.

Value Proposition

SubVortex enriches the Bittensor ecosystem by providing an alternative to the Finney network, promoting decentralization, reliability, and efficiency. It offers miners and validators a seamless experience with low barriers to entry and continuous support.