Bittensor Co-Founder Calls for Subnet Community Governance Restart, Criticizes Covenant AI Co-Founder's Actions as "Malicious and Greedy"

April 10 — In response to Covenant AI’s recent departure from the Bittensor network, Bittensor co-founder Jacob Steeves issued a statement on Discord. He revealed that when dTAO launched a year ago, the team initially planned to roll out a community-led subnet governance mechanism: subnet Alpha holders would vote via their wallets to elect the Hyperparameter Council. The feature was delayed, however, due to the early need to grant subnet owners greater control. Steeves argues now is the right time to reignite this discussion, proposing a community voting mechanism to elect the council and relaunch the subnet. He emphasized he is one of Bittensor’s top three stakeholders, supporters, and technical contributors — and will personally participate in the mechanism, recommend qualified candidates, and advance the project’s original goals established with Covenant AI founder Sam Dare. Meanwhile, Steeves bluntly labeled Sam Dare’s recent decisions “clearly malicious and greedy.” Still, he noted such crises often signal new beginnings, with the potential to redefine the subnet’s structure and governance.