Payouts
This page describes how provider earnings are paid out on Subnet 51.
Destination​
The two earning streams land in different places:
- Rental fees are transferred to your provider coldkey — the same coldkey you registered with when you joined Subnet 51 — as a daily on-chain transfer. You do not need to provide any additional wallet address.
- Subnet emission accrues as alpha stake on your hotkey, added every tempo (~72 minutes) via Yuma Consensus. It is not routed through Lium's billing and is not transferred to your coldkey. See Subnet emission → How emissions arrive.
Currency & amount​
Both streams are denominated in alpha tokens. One alpha token represents a stake in the SN51 dynamic-TAO pool. Your earnings break down as:
- Rental fees earned (if you rented GPUs): your share of renter USD, converted to alpha and transferred to your coldkey at the daily settlement (with the delay below)
- Subnet emission (allocated to all eligible providers): your share of SN51 emission, added as alpha stake on your hotkey each tempo (~72 minutes)
Schedule & delay​
Rental fees are processed daily: your earnings from a given day are computed and a transfer to your coldkey is initiated, arriving with a delay of 2 days from the earning date. Subnet emission does not follow this daily schedule — it accrues continuously as hotkey stake each tempo (~72 minutes), with no billing delay.
There is no expedited payout path. If you need faster liquidity, you can unstake your alpha once it arrives and convert it to TAO or another token (see "How to receive as TAO" below).
Misbehavior decline​
If a rental fails because of your node, a penalty declines that rental's fees for the day it fires and the day before, and the renter is refunded. Payouts already settled are never clawed back, and subnet emission is unaffected. See Penalties for the triggers, the exemptions, and how to dispute one.
Why don't I see my emission on my hotkey?​
Emission is stake, not a transfer, so it will not show up in your wallet's "Transfers" or extrinsics history. Look at the Stake view for your hotkey on the Subnet 51 page (taostats / TAO Market Cap) instead. It also arrives in small per-tempo increments rather than as a single daily payout, and your coldkey may periodically re-stake or move the accrued alpha to a delegate — either of which can make the hotkey look empty even though emission is landing. This is separate from rental fees, which arrive as a discrete daily transfer on your coldkey.
How to receive as TAO​
Alpha tokens live in the SN51 dynamic-TAO pool. To convert them to standard TAO or swap for other tokens:
- Unstake your alpha from the SN51 pool (returns it to your coldkey as standard TAO). See the Bittensor dynamic-TAO unstaking guide.
- Swap TAO for the stablecoin or token of your choice on any decentralized exchange (e.g. MEXC, Coinbase, Uniswap).
Unstaking has a default unbonding period of 7 days on the Bittensor network. Plan accordingly if you need the tokens sooner.