network_pow_registration_allowed

Subnet owners may enable PoW registration independently of the epoch consensus mechanism. It is off by default and independent of the burn toggle, registration_allowed. Owners may enable burn, PoW or both, but cannot disable the last enabled method. Root registration retains its separate admission path.

btcli hparams set --netuid 1 --name network_pow_registration_allowed --value true
btcli subnets register --netuid 1 --pow --yes

The CLI mines a recent challenge and submits the new pow_register call, signed by the coldkey. Direct submission with zero tip requires no TAO: there is no registration burn, upfront collateral purchase or transaction fee. A proxy, multisig or encrypted wrapper may charge its ordinary outer transaction fee. Standing miner collateral and emission settlement keep their existing rules.

The proof binds the subnet, hotkey, signing coldkey, nonce and recent block hash. Invalid proofs are rejected during transaction-pool validation. Reused challenge blocks are rejected per hotkey, including after hotkey swaps or registration on another subnet; use a newer challenge block for another successful PoW registration. Per-block registration limits still apply. A full subnet uses its existing pruning and immunity rules; work does not guarantee that an occupied slot is available.

The owner toggle uses the normal admin window and hyperparameter cooldown. Disabling it stops new PoW submissions without deleting existing participants. Burn registration remains available when its own toggle is enabled. The legacy register call retains its burn-based behaviour; use pow_register for actual PoW.

The current difficulty value controls the work threshold. Successful PoW registration increases only difficulty, while burn registration increases only burn price. Both reuse burn_increase_mult and burn_half_life; their prices decay independently toward their own bounds. Root/governance controls the PoW minimum, and owners cannot bypass it with a lower maximum. The old interval controller is not restored.

The Rust miner uses all discovered OpenCL GPUs by default, with CPU fallback. Use --pow-backend gpu to require GPU mining or --pow-backend cpu to select CPU. Long searches refresh the latest block hash every twelve seconds; found proofs are checked against current difficulty. Work is accepted through the five-block window, and the CLI can remine a proof rejected before inclusion because it expired. See Null consensus and difficulty.

New PoW hotkey associations keep each coldkey’s ownership and staking indexes below the existing 256-entry staking work limit. An already-associated hotkey can register on another subnet without growing those indexes.

The default is off for new subnets and missing storage entries. Previously stored explicit PoW toggle values are retained across the upgrade; owners should review their toggle before activation.