January 2, 2025
Development Meeting Summary
Date: January 2, 2025
Strategic Direction and Resource Planning
The team discussed pivoting to a more achievable roadmap given current treasury constraints. Rather than pursuing an expensive L1 blockchain build (estimated at $15M+), the focus shifts to wrapping a timing hardware provider's existing cloud services into a Bittensor subnet. This approach leverages existing partnerships and reduces development costs while still advancing the timing services vision.
Bittensor Subnet Strategy
The team plans to focus on Subnet 27 as their initial target. A whale investor has committed 12,000 TAO for staking on the subnet validator. Yuma will provide access to additional subnets for compute resources without requiring direct TAO staking from Roko. The strategy involves selling a timing hardware provider timing services to subnet operators to build case studies demonstrating efficiency improvements.
Infrastructure Options
Three infrastructure options were identified: a Google Cloud data center in Kuwait (available through a high-level political contact for free testing), AWS for the grandmaster timing server, and the planned Roko server in Portland. The team agreed to avoid expensive bespoke hardware solutions and instead work with existing Pi 4 and a timing hardware provider hardware already available.
Payment Integration with NeverMind
The roadmap includes developing a Roko API that integrates with NeverMind's micropayment protocol to handle payments across multiple Bittensor subnets. This creates a "Roko Network tax" revenue model for applications running on the compute infrastructure.
IEEE Standards Alignment
a timing hardware provider is leading an effort through the Time Appliances Project (part of Open Compute Project) to define a new IEEE standard for timing services by March. The team plans to align closely with this effort and participate in weekly Wednesday governance calls.
Next Steps
| Owner | Task |
|---|---|
| Big | Define bare metal requirements for Subnet 27 nodes |
| Manitcor | Research wrapping a timing hardware provider API for subnet integration |
| Maptet | Coordinate with Yuma for multi-subnet access |
| Big | Create timeline and calendar for Q1 deliverables |
Upcoming Milestones
- Subnet 27 Validator: Q1 2025
- a timing hardware provider Wrapper Development: Q1 2025
- IEEE Standard Definition: March 2025