Recycling
The process of removing TAO from the total issuance count, effectively returning it to the unissued supply. Recycled TAO can be emitted again in future blocks.
What is Recycling?
When TAO is recycled, it gets subtracted from the blockchain's total issuance. This means the recycled TAO no longer counts as "in circulation" for the purpose of calculating the emission rate. Since halving is triggered by the total issuance, recycling pushes those thresholds further away.
Think of it as putting tokens back into the unissued emission pool. These tokens will be emitted again over time.
What Gets Recycled
Several actions recycle TAO by reducing the total issuance:
A portion of subnet creation costs (the part not used as initial pool liquidity)
Hotkey swap fees
Coldkey swap fees
Effect on Halving
The more TAO that gets recycled, the slower the total issuance grows, and the longer it takes to reach each halving threshold. This means the actual timing of each halving is not fixed (it depends on how much activity generates recycling).
Periods of high subnet creation and key swapping produce more recycling, pushing halvings further into the future.
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