TaoScope documentation

Everything you need to read the Bittensor network through TaoScope — from your first look at a subnet page to the exact formula behind each number we publish.

What is TaoScope?

TaoScope is a block explorer and analytics dashboard for the Bittensor network. It brings subnet economics, validator performance, and on-chain activity into one place so you can answer practical questions: which subnets are emitting the most TAO, what it costs to register a hotkey, how a validator's stake has moved, and where a transaction went.

Browsing TaoScope is read-only and anonymous: no account, no wallet, and no personal data are required to use any part of the explorer. Connecting a wallet is optional and adds a view of your own balances and delegations.

TaoScope is non-custodial. We never ask for a private key or seed phrase, never hold your funds, and cannot move them. The staking and unstaking actions on the wallet and validator pages build a transaction that your own browser extension asks you to review and sign — nothing is submitted unless you approve it there, and your keys never leave the extension.

Who these docs are for

The documentation is written for four audiences, and most pages are useful to more than one of them.

  • People new to Bittensor who want a correct mental model before spending TAO. Start with The network and read the concept pages in order.
  • Prospective miners evaluating which subnet to compete in. Read Choosing a subnet and then Start mining.
  • Stakers and delegators comparing validators and subnet tokens. See Delegating and staking.
  • Hiring candidates who have applied on Careers and need to complete an assessment in VS Code. Start with the VS Code extension.

No prior blockchain experience assumed

Concept pages explain Bittensor from first principles. If a term is unfamiliar, the metrics glossary defines every value that appears in the interface.

Browse the documentation

How we handle data

Production decisions get made from these pages, so we hold the content to a few rules.

  • Measured, not invented. Every figure in the interface is read from the Bittensor chain or from an indexer that reads the chain. TaoScope does not publish editorial ratings of subnets, hardware requirements, or difficulty scores.
  • Unknown stays unknown. When a value is not reported upstream, the interface shows an em dash rather than substituting zero.
  • Derived values are labelled. Where we calculate something — such as the daily TAO that flows to a subnet's miners — the page states the formula and its inputs. See Data sources.

Not financial advice

Nothing in this documentation or in the TaoScope interface is investment, financial, or legal advice. Mining and staking put capital at risk. Read the disclaimer before acting on anything you find here.