Key Takeaways:
Jacob Steeves accused Samuel Dare of betrayal after Covenant AI exited, sparking a 25% crash in TAO price. The fallout erased $650 million in market cap and triggered $9.1 million in long liquidations on April 10. Bittensor will propose a “Locked Stake” feature during the next Discord community call.
Betrayal Allegations
Following a tumultuous week that saw the TAO token plummet 25%, Bittensor co-founder Jacob Steeves—known as “Const”—has broken his silence regarding the departure of Samuel Dare and Covenant AI. In a deeply personal statement, Steeves addressed allegations of centralization and outlined a technical roadmap intended to prevent similar “financial rugs” in the future.
Steeves did not mince words regarding the emotional impact of the split, describing Dare as someone he “considered a brother.” He accused Dare of taking actions designed to inflict “maximum pain” on the protocol and its community.
“He let everyone down who bought his token and who trusted in him,” Steeves stated. “He betrayed us all.”
As reported by Bitcoin.com News, Bittensor’s utility token, TAO, tumbled from $337 to $253 in under six hours on Friday, April 10. The token’s attempted rebound Sunday briefly saw it reach nearly $280 before it gradually pared those gains to settle just above $260. In a post on X explaining the circumstances that prompted his team to leave, Dare suggested that TAO’s decline in the days leading up to the fallout was due to token sales by Steeves.
However, addressing users who suffered losses during the price crash, Steeves offered an apology to users who felt a “financial rug” was pulled out from under them. While he dismissed Dare’s accusations of centralization as “unfounded”—suggesting his former colleague may be experiencing a personal crisis—he acknowledged that the incident highlighted a “genuine threat” to the network’s stability.
The ‘Locked Stake’ Proposal
Steeves argued that the incident proves human-led governance is inherently flawed, citing “greed and selfishness” as the pitfalls Bittensor was designed to resist. To move forward, he proposed a shift from legal accountability to cryptographic accountability.
The centerpiece of this recovery plan is a new protocol-level feature: locked stake.
“The solution comes from the need to introduce a new aspect of ownership: commitment,” Steeves explained. “It is measured as the time remaining before tokens can move; time plus stake.”
Under the proposed locked stake, subnet owners will be able to lock their tokens for a defined period to demonstrate long-term commitment. This transparency, Steeves argues, is designed to provide assurances against sudden exits or “dumping” by founders. By moving from branding to “pure mathematical rules,” the protocol aims to protect the ecosystem from the volatile nature of human decision-making.
Regarding the specific subnets left in limbo by Covenant AI’s departure, Steeves confirmed that the community is already moving to reorganize. Because Bittensor is built on open-source code, miners and the remaining team members are expected to revive the project.
“Functionally, these subnets should not change,” he noted, emphasizing that a single individual never owned the vision for these tools.
Despite the market volatility, Steeves doubled down on Bittensor’s mission, claiming it remains “by far the most decentralized AI protocol in existence.” He framed the current crisis as a necessary evolution for a protocol designed to be permissionless and resistant to the darker qualities of human nature.
Steeves is expected to present the formal designs for the locked stake feature during an open call in the Bittensor Discord next Thursday, where he will take questions from the community.
