What if one simple swap was all you needed to tap into the future of decentralized AI?
Introducing TaoFi, a new innovation powered by Hyperlane to expand access to the Bittensor ecosystem by letting users buy alpha tokens from their preferred chain and wallet.
By combining Hyperlane’s Warp Route and Interchain Account frameworks with Sturdy’s Subnet 10 optimization, TaoFi is introducing a new kind of user experience - single-swap access to Bittensor.
The first phase of TaoFi is now live:
- Bridge USDC from Ethereum and Base ⏩ https://www.taofi.com/bridge
- Swap USDC to TAO on Bittensor EVM ⏩ https://www.taofi.com/swap
- Provide liquidity to a USDC <> TAO pool ⏩ https://www.taofi.com/pool
Read on to understand why TaoFi was built, the new user experience TaoFi is building, and how Hyperlane powers it all ⏬
Understanding Bittensor & Alpha Tokens
Bittensor is a decentralized AI platform which operates through a network of Subnets. Each Subnet is dedicated to a specific AI task such as inference or training, as miners compete to perform tasks which validators evaluate and reward with TAO, Bittensor’s native currency.
Subnets issue their own native tokens referred to as alpha tokens, which help determine how much TAO that Subnet receives. The more demand for a Subnet’s alpha token, the more TAO that Subnet receives.
However, buying alpha tokens today is a time-consuming, multistep process: users need to first download a Bittensor wallet, purchase TAO on an exchange, and then find the validator and Subnet they want to support.
What if this entire flow could be reduced to a single swap?
That’s where TaoFi comes in.
Single-Swap Access To Bittensor.
TaoFi introduces single-swap access to Bittensor: a new, improved way to onboard to the network building the future of decentralized AI.
The idea is simple: buy native alpha tokens with a single swap from a preferred wallet or chain.
With TaoFi, users will be able to swap assets on Base, Ethereum, and Solana for native alpha tokens on Bittensor. All swaps will go through TAO, but bridging and swaps will be abstracted away in the backend, with users retaining custody of their assets.
This unlocks a better experience for everyone:
- Users can get access to the growing Bittensor ecosystem from their familiar wallets (i.e. Phantom or Metamask) using familiar assets (i.e. USDC, ETH, SOL), without needing to set up a new wallet or buy TAO on an exchange to get started.
- Subnets gain deeper liquidity and greater visibility, as TaoFi makes it easier for flows to come in from other chains and ecosystems.
Sounds great - but how does it all work?
Powered By Hyperlane
To enable a smooth, single-swap onboarding experience to Bittensor, TaoFi builds on several key infrastructure components. While Sturdy SN10 routes swaps on the backend, Hyperlane’s interoperability framework powers access to Bittensor from different chains.
Hyperlane’s framework is open-source, permissionless, and flexible, making it perfect to serve unique interchain applications like TaoFi:
- Warp Routes - Hyperlane’s token bridging framework - will facilitate asset bridging between Ethereum, Base, and the Bittensor EVM. These Warp Routes serve as the foundation for bridging liquidity into the Bittensor ecosystem, which will be swapped for TAO to then be swapped for native alpha tokens.
- Interchain Accounts (ICAs) are a unique innovation on Hyperlane that allow a smart contract on one chain to call a contract on another chain. For TaoFi, this means users will be able to execute transactions on Bittensor EVM from chains like Solana or Ethereum.
Beyond infrastructure and tooling, Hyperlane also enables TaoFi to scale its reach to new chains and VMs - with over 150 chains connected across 5 VMs today. With Hyperlane’s flexible and permissionless nature, access to alpha tokens can easily be expanded to new chains and assets over time as needed.
Looking Ahead
The vision behind TaoFi is simple: to help grow the Bittensor ecosystem by making it easily accessible.
TaoFi will be rolled out in several phases. Today, users can:
- Bridge USDC from Ethereum and Base to Bittensor EVM ⏩ https://www.taofi.com/bridge
- Swap USDC to TAO on Bittensor EVM ⏩ https://www.taofi.com/swap
- Provide liquidity to a USDC <> TAO pool ⏩ https://www.taofi.com/pool
Soon, users will soon be able to purchase native alpha tokens in their preferred asset on their preferred chain - whether its ETH on Ethereum, SOL on Solana, and more.
Stay tuned for further announcements.
About Hyperlane
Hyperlane is an open framework for interoperability. It is the toolkit empowering developers to connect any chain and build applications that can easily and securely communicate between multiple blockchains.
