Delegating and staking

Delegation lets you earn a share of validator rewards without running infrastructure. It is the lowest-effort way to participate — which does not make it risk-free.

What delegation is

Validators earn a share of each subnet's emission based on their stake weight. That stake does not have to be their own. When you delegate, you stake TAO behind a validator's hotkey, increasing its weight, and in return you receive a portion of the rewards that stake earns.

The validator deducts its take — a percentage it keeps — and the remainder is distributed to delegators in proportion to their stake.

You keep control of your funds

Delegating does not transfer ownership. Your coldkey retains control and you can undelegate. What you give up is the use of that capital while it is staked, and you take on the risks described below.

Root stake versus subnet stake

Since dynamic TAO there are two meaningfully different things people call “staking”, and confusing them is the most common source of disappointment.

	Root stake (netuid 0)	Subnet stake
What you hold	TAO, staked directly.	Alpha, the subnet's own token, received in exchange for TAO.
Price exposure	TAO only.	TAO plus the alpha price, which moves with demand for that subnet.
Where returns come from	A share of dividends across subnets, subject to the root proportion rule.	That subnet's validator emission.
Exit	Unstake to TAO.	Sell alpha back into the subnet pool, incurring slippage.

Subnet stake carries token risk

Staking into a subnet converts TAO into alpha at the current pool price. If the alpha price falls further than your rewards accumulate, you end up with less TAO than you started with, even though your alpha balance grew.

What determines your yield

The validator's take. The percentage kept before delegators are paid. Lower is better, all else being equal — but a low take on a validator that earns little is worth less than a higher take on one that performs.
The validator's performance. Validators whose weight submissions track consensus earn higher dividends. One that votes erratically or falls offline earns less for everyone behind it.
Total stake behind the hotkey. Rewards are divided among all delegators, so a larger pool means a smaller individual share of the same rewards.
Subnet emission. The size of the pool being divided moves with the subnet's share of network emission.
Alpha price, if you staked into a subnet rather than root.

Advertised APR is backward-looking

Yield figures are derived from recent returns. None of the inputs above are fixed, so a published APR describes what happened, not what will happen.

Choosing a validator

1
Filter on reliability before yield
Consistent participation matters more over time than a marginally better headline rate. Look for a stable stake history and continuous activity rather than a recent spike.
2
Compare take against actual returns
Use the comparison tool to put candidates side by side on take, stake, and returns rather than judging any single number in isolation.
3
Decide root or subnet deliberately
Root stake keeps your exposure in TAO. Subnet stake adds exposure to a specific alpha token. Both are valid; choose knowingly rather than by default.
4
Spread across validators
Concentrating everything behind one hotkey means one operator's downtime or misconfiguration affects all of your stake.

Risks

Price risk. TAO and alpha prices can fall by more than any yield you earn.
Validator underperformance. If your validator loses its permit, drifts from consensus, or goes offline, your returns fall with it.
Liquidity risk. Exiting subnet stake means selling alpha into a pool. In a thin pool, a large exit moves the price against you.
Protocol risk. Bittensor's economics have changed materially before — dynamic TAO was a significant redesign — and can change again.
Operational risk. Sending funds to a wrong address or losing your coldkey mnemonic is irreversible.

TaoScope never takes custody

Staking through TaoScope is non-custodial. We do not accept deposits, never hold your TAO, and will never ask for a seed phrase or private key. Every transaction is signed inside your own browser extension, so you approve the exact amount and destination before anything is submitted. Any site or message asking you to send TAO to TaoScope, or requesting your seed phrase, is fraudulent.

TaoScope tools

Validator explorer — stake, take, and performance for every validator.
Delegator tools — a validator picker organised by risk profile, and an alpha buy simulator that estimates slippage from live pool balances.
Compare — up to four validators side by side on every metric.
Wallet view — balances and delegations for a connected address, plus non-custodial staking and unstaking.

Not financial advice

These tools present public on-chain data. They are not a recommendation to stake with any particular validator or subnet. See the disclaimer.

Last updated August 7, 2026