Miner

Miners are the workers in Bittensor's subnets. They receive tasks from validators, produce responses, and earn ALPHA emissions based on how well validators score their output. The specific work varies by subnet (answering questions, generating images, translating languages, storing data, or any other task the subnet owner has defined).

Miners do not score others or set weights. Their only job is to perform the subnet's task as well as possible. Better performance means higher weights from validators, which translates directly into more ALPHA emissions.

To join a subnet, a miner must register by paying a non-reversible registration cost in TAO. This TAO gets swapped for the subnet's ALPHA through the pool, and the ALPHA is recycled.

Each subnet has a limited number of UID slots (256 by default), shared between miners and validators. When all slots are full, a new miner can only join by replacing the existing participant with the lowest emissions. The subnet owner's hotkey is immune from being replaced, but can't earn emissions (incentives).

After the 18% subnet owner cut is deducted, approximately 41% of the subnet's ALPHA emissions go to miners as incentive. Each miner's share is proportional to the consensus-weighted scores they receive from validators (miners who produce better work receive higher weights and earn more).

Miners must stay active. If a miner stops responding or produces consistently low-quality work, their weights drop, their emissions decrease, and they eventually become the lowest-scoring participant making them the next to be replaced when a new miner registers.