Bittensor acknowledges centralization: full network decentralization expected in 18 months
Bittensor protocol founder Jacob Steves made an important admission that sheds light on the current state of the project. According to him, Bittensor is not yet a fully decentralized protocol. This decision was made deliberately — for the accelerated development of artificial intelligence technologies.
Steves drew a direct parallel with Bitcoin, which was originally created as a system resistant to government control. Bittensor, however, is in the early stages of its lifecycle. Currently, network management is effectively concentrated in the hands of a small group of engineers. This approach allows the team to quickly make changes to the protocol and fix critical errors without sacrificing efficiency for formal "democratic" procedures.
Three Community Groups and a Clear Strategy
The project head divided the entire community into three categories. For supporters without deep technical knowledge, detailed and clear explanations for each update are promised. The team already works directly and closely with developers. However, the opinions of "scammers and critics," who, according to Steves, use the idea of decentralization as a tool to block necessary updates, will be ignored.
At the same time, the founder emphasized that Bittensor is already decentralized at the ownership level. The project had no premine, and 128 subnet teams are actively functioning in the network, creating a distributed ownership structure.
Roadmap: Shorts, Holder Rights, and Governance Transfer
Development plans include launching short position mechanisms to protect against market manipulation, as well as implementing rights for alpha token holders. Steves set a clear deadline: within the next year and a half, when the protocol's core mechanisms are fully debugged and ready, network governance will be transferred to the community.
Recall that Bittensor provides access to computing resources through an open global network without intermediaries, making it a key player in the decentralized AI segment.
My comment: Acknowledging centralization at this stage is not a weakness but a strategic necessity. The decentralized AI market is in its formative stage, and development speed is critically important here. If the Bittensor team actually transfers governance to the community in 18 months, it will set a precedent for the entire sector. However, investors should closely monitor how exactly this transition will be implemented and what governance mechanisms will be established.