Commitment AI leaves Bittensor among decentralized risks, TAO decreases by 18%
Bittensor subnet developer Pledge AI has said it will abandon the decentralized artificial intelligence network, accusing Bittensor of operating under an entrenched governance structure that undermines its claims of decentralization.
Covenant AI founder Sam Dare said in a Friday post that the team can no longer build or develop for Bittensor because the regime has not been meaningfully distributed.
“It's decentralized theater,” Dare said. “Jacob Steeves exercises effective control over the triad, resists any meaningful devolution and unilaterally deploys changes whenever he chooses without due process and consensus.”
The dissonance cuts Bittensor's decentralized voice to its core. Steves denied allegations that Covenant AI founder Jacob Steves, known as Const.
Bittensor's governance documents describe a transition system in which the “triumvirate” of Opentensor Foundation staff, alongside the Senate, holds root approval rather than a fully open governance model.
Bittensor founder denies claims AI subnet releases blocked
Promise AI Steves has taken several steps on the project in recent weeks, including stopping emissions on the sub-network, limiting scaling power in community channels, and implementing “direct economic pressure” on token sales during the debate.
Steves denied the allegations, saying that he could not block the subnet's release and that he had “no more privilege than ordinary TAO holders.”
In Friday's X response, Steves said he changed the release because some of his “Alpha holdings on the three subnets were unable to sell and were at 100% burning code,” which similarly changed the release to say “everyone buys and sells on Bittensor.”
Steves said he stripped Covenant AI of his moderator rights, only temporarily deleting the group's posts before reinstating the group. He added that a large token sale was seen on the onchain.
“It's not big. It's less than 1% of what I spent in the groups. Visibility is unavoidable in my position. I have the right to buy and sell, which supports the whole system of Ditao,” he added.
Bittensor has previously gained mainstream attention, after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang praised the decentralized training process on Bittensor Subnet 3, calling it a “remarkable technical achievement” during the March 19th All-In podcast.
Related: Bittensor's TAO price could drop 40% in five weeks: Fractal data
TAO's sales volume increased prior to the announcement of Covenant AI's departure.
The governance dispute also weighed on Bittensor's (TAO) token, which was down 18% in the past 24 hours on Friday morning, according to market data.
However, sales volume on TAO rose to its highest level since December 2024, just 24 hours before Covenant announced the release of AI. “If you think that was a fluke, you don't understand the game you're playing. This was a calculated exit and execution,” crypto analyst RD wrote on Friday's XPost.
Cointelegraph reached out to Promise AI and Bittensor for comment but did not receive a response by press time.
David and Daniel Lieberman, co-creators of the decentralized layer-1 blockchain Gonka protocol, said the dispute poses a broader threat to projects that seek to promote decentralization.
“Decentralized networks looking for serious builders need to answer one question: Can the infrastructure you build be used against you? If the answer is yes, then decentralization is cosmetic,” he told Cointelegraph.
Magazine: Michael Heinrich likes AI coins Goat, Turbo and Ether… but not TAO.
