Bittensor finally let subnet owners set their own pay. A few found the top of the range before dinner.
eTAO went live Oct 19 (runtime v481). For years every subnet split new alpha the same way: 18% owner, 41% validators, 41% miners. Now each owner picks, within rails: owner 0–33%, validators up to 50%, miners at least 33%. One change per week.
SN41 Almanac went 10% owner / 50% miners / 40% validators and called miners "the lifeblood." Early trackers count 7 of 128 subnets on custom splits, four of them parked at the 33% owner max. Same dial, very different ideas of who the subnet is for.
The fine print has a protected class: root TAO stakers get their baseline share off the top, whatever the owner picks. Cut the validator slot and every point comes out of alpha validators. And the split doesn't change how much TAO flows into a subnet's pool. It only decides who's holding the new alpha.
Token Autopsy: no new value, just new transparency. eTAO doesn't make anyone generous. It makes appetite public, on-chain, rate-limited to once a week. If you hold a subnet token, the split is now line one of your due diligence.
Is a 33% owner cut a funding model or a tell?
https://www.bittensor.com/docs/guides/etao