Tom Bolers from Bitcast (Subnet 93) joins the Hash Rate pod to break down how his project is building a decentralized media machine on Bitensor. Bitcast uses TAO incentives not for AI compute, but to power a streamlined content and advertising network that aims to solve the core needs of the entire ecosystem.
Bitensor’s Marketing Engine
- "We are a Bitensor subnet that uses incentives for content creation... we're like the bridge between brands and creators making everything as seamless as possible."
- "Bitensor is the only major L1 without a marketing budget and naturally, we came up with a thought, 'Well, hang on a minute, why don't we create a marketing subnet?'"
- Bitcast (Subnet 93) repurposes Bitensor's incentive mechanism for a non-traditional use case: content creation. Instead of supplying compute, creators "mine" TAO by producing videos that adhere to specific briefs from advertisers (often other subnets).
- The system uses AI to validate the content, watching videos to confirm they meet the brief's requirements. This automates a traditionally manual process and works seamlessly across multiple languages, including French, German, Spanish, and Hindi, right out of the box.
The TAO Economic Flywheel
- "Within Tao... it's the currency within the whole ecosystem, with all subnets interacting and paying for services between each other. And when I realized that, I was like, 'That's like basically Bitcoin on steroids.'"
- Unlike other L1 ecosystems where you spend the native token, Bitensor’s model is built on staking. To create subnet tokens (like Bitcast’s), you must stake TAO, locking it out of circulating supply.
- This creates a powerful value accrual flywheel. As more subnets launch and gain traction, more TAO gets locked up, continuously reducing the available supply on the open market and driving value back to the root token.
Fixing the Creator Economy
- "From a brand's perspective, if a brand wanted to get, let's say, 20 different creators to make videos, that is a massively time-consuming process... Our solution basically gets rid of all those problems."
- Bitcast eliminates the friction of traditional influencer marketing. Brands can deploy a campaign to dozens of creators in hours, not weeks, while AI verification ensures compliance without manual oversight.
- After starting with a competitive reward model, Bitcast now offers creators a predictable and lucrative CPM (cost per mille) of around $1,200-$1,300. This consistency makes it far more appealing for creators to join the network.
Key Takeaways:
- The podcast presents Bitcast as a case study in Bitensor's power to "summon" whatever the ecosystem needs—in this case, a self-funding marketing and media arm. By participating, creators from other chains are getting "TAO-pilled," turning into Bitensor advocates as they experience the network's power firsthand.
1. A "Magical Moment" for Investors. The host argues that TAO and its subnets are in a period analogous to early Bitcoin or Ethereum. The massive valuation gap between subnets (e.g., a $15M AI subnet) and their centralized counterparts (a $28B company) suggests the market has not yet priced in their potential.
2. The Biggest Customers Are Outside Crypto. While currently serving Bitensor subnets, Bitcast's largest future growth vector is projected to be other crypto chains and external projects seeking a hyper-efficient, trustless advertising platform.
3. Scale is Imminent. Bitcast is weeks away from launching a "no-code miner," enabling one-click onboarding for creators. This, combined with planned expansion to X (Twitter) and TikTok, is set to dramatically scale the network's reach and impact.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLstJ9HovZg
This episode reveals how Bittensor is bootstrapping its own decentralized marketing machine, using token incentives to solve its biggest adoption challenge: complexity.
Introduction to Bitcast: A Marketing Subnet for Bittensor
- Bitcast's Core Function: Tom defines Bitcast as a Bittensor subnet that uses token incentives for content creation. It acts as a bridge between brands (initially other subnets) and content creators, primarily on YouTube.
- The Process: Brands provide a "brief" in bullet-point format outlining the required talking points for a video. Creators produce the content, and an AI model analyzes the videos to verify compliance and reward creators based on genuine engagement.
- The Problem Solved: Mark notes that most Bittensor subnets require deep technical or AI expertise to participate as miners. Bitcast, however, allows non-technical content creators to mine by producing media, addressing a critical need within the complex Bittensor ecosystem: clear communication and education. As Tom puts it, "We took content creation, saw that Bittensor is... so complicated... So, we set out to solve it."
Bittensor as a General-Purpose Incentive Engine
- Bootstrapping a Marketing Budget: Tom highlights a key insight: "Bittensor is the only major L1 without a marketing budget." Bitcast effectively functions as a decentralized, self-funding marketing arm for the entire ecosystem, a stark contrast to chains like Avalanche or Solana that have multi-million dollar marketing funds.
- Incentive-Driven Growth: The system incentivizes participants at every level. Tom was motivated to create the subnet by the potential rewards, and creators like Mark are motivated to produce content to earn TAO emissions. This creates a powerful, self-perpetuating growth loop.
The Unique Tokenomics of TAO and Subnet Value
- Staking, Not Spending: In ecosystems like Ethereum, the native token is spent to acquire other assets. In Bittensor, TAO is staked to create subnet tokens. These tokens are essentially rehypothecated staked TAO, meaning their value is derived from and locked into the core asset.
- Value Accrual to TAO: This mechanism means that as the subnet economy grows, more TAO is locked up in staking, reducing the circulating supply available on the open market. Mark emphasizes, "all of the value is always being driven back into the root core token... I don't think a lot of people have internalized that dynamic yet."
- A "Magical Moment" for Investors: Mark draws a parallel to the early days of Bitcoin and Ethereum, suggesting we are in a "magical moment" for Bittensor. He points to the massive valuation gap between a Bittensor project like Ready AI (Subnet 33) at a $15 million market cap and its Web2 equivalent, Scale AI, valued at $28 billion. This disparity, he argues, exists because of the current friction in accessing the ecosystem, an opportunity that won't last.
A Deep Dive into Bitcast's Operations and Model
- Briefs and Ads: Bitcast offers two main products: dedicated briefs (full videos on a topic) and ads (short spots within existing content). Subnets and other projects purchase these products to gain exposure.
- From Competition to Predictability: Tom reveals a major strategic shift in their reward model.
- Version 1: Creators competed for a share of a daily reward pool, making earnings unpredictable.
- Version 2: The new model provides a consistent and predictable payout based on a target CPM (Cost Per Mille), a standard industry metric for cost per thousand views. Tom states the target is around "$1,200-$1,300," which aligns with Mark's earnings of roughly two TAO (around $1,000 at the time) per brief for about 1,000 views.
- Strategic Implication: This shift makes Bitcast far more accessible and attractive to professional creators and agencies who require predictable revenue, signaling a maturation of the platform and lowering the barrier to entry.
The Origin Story and Future of Bitcast
- Initial Skepticism: Tom recounts how nearly everyone, from subnet incubators to investors, initially rejected the idea because "that's not AI." Mark admits his own initial reaction was that it "sounds like a dumb idea," comparing it to the early, misunderstood genius of Uber.
- Future Expansion: Bitcast plans to expand beyond YouTube, with X (formerly Twitter) as the next target, followed by TikTok and Instagram. A key enabler for this growth is the upcoming "no-code miner," which will allow creators to onboard with a single click, removing the current technical friction.
- The "Towel-Pilling" Flywheel: A fascinating emergent property of the network is that creators from other crypto ecosystems who join Bitcast to mine often become Bittensor maximalists. As they create educational content, they "Towel-pill" themselves, becoming powerful, authentic advocates for the ecosystem. Mark exclaims, "The YouTubers are Towel-pilling themselves while they're Towel-pilling others... on live videos. Brilliant."
Conclusion: A Contrarian Bet on Ecosystem Infrastructure
The conversation underscores that Bitcast's value lies in its contrarian approach—using Bittensor's incentive engine to solve a non-AI, real-world business problem. This model proves that Bittensor's potential extends far beyond just building AI models.
For investors and researchers, Bitcast is a case study in how Bittensor can bootstrap its own critical infrastructure. The most significant opportunities may lie not just in the "pure AI" subnets, but in those solving fundamental ecosystem needs like marketing, which are currently undervalued and overlooked.
