Bittensor not ready for decentralization, needs to 'move fast'

Bittensor needs to be more fully decentralized, project co-founder Jacob Steeves wrote in a lengthy post on X, following a key ecosystem contributor's recent defection, Crypto Briefing reported.

But it may not happen for a year and a half, since the project needs to "move fast and iterate, update, and develop quickly, at the cost of remaining centralized, rather than sacrificing quality and moving slowly and 'democratically,'" Steeves, who often goes by the name "Const" in crypto circles, wrote in the post.

As reported by Crypto Briefing, the near-term roadmap calls for raising validator competition, bidirectional liquidity pools and "a conviction-based voting mechanism for Alpha token holders."

DeAI News flagged in April that ecosystem participant Covenant AI exited and accused the network of "decentralization theatre," and alleging unilateral control by Steeves. TAO's price fell roughly 18-20% in the aftermath.

Critics have long argued Bittensor's "triumvirate" governance model concentrates too much power over the economic incentive layer in too few hands.