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Subnet emission

Subnet 51 receives a share of Bittensor's per-tempo (~72 minutes) TAO emission. Validators split that share across three pools — rented, unrented, and burn — and pay the result to providers as alpha.

Bittensor protocol layer (general context)

Every 72 minutes (~360 blocks), Bittensor emits new TAO to the network:

  • 41% to providers (the protocol's "miner" role)
  • 41% to validators and stakers
  • 18% to subnet owners

Subnet 51 competes for the provider share alongside other subnets, then distributes its slice via Yuma Consensus. See Bittensor Emissions and Yuma Consensus.

Subnet 51 layer​

Each epoch the validator splits the SN51 provider emission into three pools.

The three pools​

PoolShareWho earnsLive source of truth
Rented9% — fixedNodes whose GPU is currently rentedGrafana — GPU model rate (per-model gpu_portion)
Unrented0 – 91% — dynamicUnrented nodes of eligible GPU modelsLium rewards calculator (per-model USD/epoch)
Burn91% minus the unrented shareDesignated burner UIDs only—

The unrented and burn pools share a 91% ceiling. When unrented activity grows, burn shrinks toward zero; when unrented activity is sparse, burn absorbs the slack.

Rented pool​

Distributed across rented nodes in proportion to a live per-model gpu_portion, which the validator updates from rental revenue every time the Lium platform reports a new figure. The current values are on the Grafana dashboard — treat that as the live truth.

Unrented pool​

Distributed across unrented nodes of eligible GPU models. The eligible models, the per-(model, gpu_count) USD/hr prices, and the per-bucket supply caps all change over time as Lium tunes the validator's incentive parameters — so use the rewards calculator rather than memorizing a list. See Rewards calculator for a walkthrough.

Eligibility is just three things: your GPU is not currently rented, its base model has a positive bucket cap (a per-model limit on how many unrented GPUs can earn from this pool), and your validator-assigned score is > 0.

Burn pool (ordinary providers do not earn from this pool)

The residual: burn share = total burn ceiling − unrented share. Distributed equally across designated burner UIDs.

Sysbox is required​

Sysbox is a hard precondition. Without sysbox-runc running on your node, your sysbox_multiplier is 0 and you earn nothing — from any pool. The legacy partial penalty (a 0.8× multiplier for non-sysbox rented nodes) only applied to rentals created before the cutoff at 2026-04-03 12:00 UTC, which has now passed. See Sysbox setup.

What about my score? (math details)

The math depends on which pool your node is earning from. The formulas below assume sysbox-runc is running on your node (without it, every score is 0).

Rented pool (your GPU is currently rented):

mining_score = score × gpu_portion × gpu_count / total_gpu_count_of_model
incentive    = mining_share × mining_score / total_mining_score

gpu_portion is the live per-model value on the Grafana dashboard. total_gpu_count_of_model is the total count of your GPU model across all rented nodes in the epoch — so your slice shrinks as more competitors of the same model come online.

Unrented pool (your GPU is unrented and its base model is eligible):

effective_rate = hourly_rate × unrented_cap_multiplier
incentive      = rental_share × gpu_count × effective_rate / total_rental_cost

unrented_cap_multiplier = min(unrented_count_in_bucket, max_cap) / unrented_count_in_bucket — cap dilution per (base_model, gpu_count_bucket). If your bucket already has more unrented GPUs than its cap, every node in it scales down proportionally.

How emissions arrive​

Subnet 51 emission lands as alpha tokens in the subnet pool on-chain. You don't receive alpha directly — the billing system tracks earnings off-chain and transfers them to your coldkey via a stake-transfer transaction once per day. See Getting Paid.

Where to monitor​

On-chain weights update at the end of each tempo (~72 minutes). The Grafana dashboard updates continuously as the validator processes new rental-revenue messages.