Bittensor AI data subnet launched, could Masa become the first Alpha of the TAO ecosystem?

Author: Frank, Foresight News

After TAO, who will be the next Alpha in the DeAI track?

In this inaugural year of the Web3 + AI narrative, Bittensor (TAO), the leading player in the AI sector backed by top investment institutions like Polychain and DCG, has reached a small climax in the DeAI field after landing on Binance, driving a series of conceptual tokens to rise.

Now, while the market is fluctuating, the AI narrative continues to surge forward. VanEck predicts that by 2030, the AI market share could reach as high as $1.8 trillion, which means the demand for DeAI will continue to expand: if a Web3-based co-creation and sharing framework can provide everyone with equal opportunities to participate in the AI era, allowing everyone to share in the dividends of the AI age, it will undoubtedly be the biggest opportunity in the next wave of the "AI & Web3" trend, potentially even larger in scale than Bitcoin.

The Bittensor narrative is far from over, and the ecosystem has just begun. So, who will be the first Alpha among them? Just yesterday, Masa announced the launch of an LLM-based AI data subnet on Bittensor, becoming the first data subnet with a token in the Bittensor ecosystem, and MASA has become the only investable "new coin" in the broader Bittensor ecosystem after TAO.

In the context of a volatile market, will the launch of the Masa Bittensor subnet become a catalyst for a new round of "AI & Web3" market trends? Can Masa (MASA) become the focal point for attracting funds and developer resources from the Bittensor ecosystem?

Masa: The First Token Issuing Data Subnet in the Bittensor Ecosystem

To some extent, the Bittensor ecosystem and the "AI & Web3" narrative can be seen as two sides of the same coin.

Since the rise of this round of AI super narrative, the Web3 game around the three elements of AI—"computing power, algorithms, and data"—has rapidly intensified, with a number of leading players emerging in different sub-tracks, among which Bittensor has taken the lead, playing the role of the "elephant in the room" in the DeAI field:

Since its launch in March 2023, Bittensor has built a global AI ecosystem valued at $10 billion, with institutional validators including DCG subsidiary Foundry and Polychain staking a total of 5.7 million TAO (approximately $1.8 billion), completely breaking the valuation ceiling of the DeAI narrative.

More critically, because Bittensor operates through a central network composed of smaller, specialized subnets, each dedicated to different areas of AI and incentivized by its complex TAO economic model to produce high-value AI subnets, it has continuously stimulated the innovative vitality of the DeAI field as the "first-generation Alpha" project.

In May, Bittensor also announced that it would add four subnet slots each week until reaching a new limit of 64 slots, with a goal of reaching 1,024 subnets this year. As a result, the continuously expanding Bittensor subnet ecosystem has almost become a unified DeAI underlying innovation platform that siphons high-quality projects and resources, covering multiple fields such as content generation, data collection and processing, LLM ecosystems, decentralized infrastructure, DeFi, and other applications.

From this perspective, the launch of the LLM-based AI data subnet by Masa on Bittensor is undoubtedly a clever move to more broadly reach global resources and projects in the DeAI field—Masa's Bittensor subnet will leverage Bittensor's P2P machine intelligence network to accelerate the aggregation, transformation, and acquisition of AI data, enabling AI developers to build anything using any data from anywhere in the world.

Therefore, this collaboration essentially serves as a ticket for Masa, greatly empowering its own ecosystem, and it is even possible that it will build the most active and utilized Bittensor subnet within the broader Bittensor ecosystem, thus becoming the "new generation Alpha" that carries on Bittensor.

After all, this subnet currently provides real-time and static, structured, annotated, and vectorized data from various data sources, including X, Discord, recorded voice data (such as podcasts, YouTube, TikTok), restricted network data (such as The New York Times), and public network data (such as Google searches). AI developers have already used it for various use cases, such as capturing trading signals and building hyper-personalized AI companions.

Through the integration with Bittensor, Masa gains stronger technical support and resource advantages, further expanding the functionality and application scenarios of its data subnet, providing users with higher quality and richer services and experiences; at the same time, it also helps attract hundreds of mature developers within the Bittensor ecosystem to join, thereby expanding Masa's developer community and accelerating the next phase of its ecosystem's boundless innovative evolution.

Of course, this benefit is also mutual. Over the past two years, the Masa network has developed over 1.6 million contributors and more than 100 developers, with different participants earning rewards through data contributions. It is expected that these Masa contributors, developers, and validators will significantly enhance the performance and utility of the Bittensor network.

Interestingly, prior to this, there were no other subnet projects in the broader Bittensor ecosystem that launched tokens aside from TAO, which means that the tradable targets for funds deposited in Bittensor were quite limited. The launch of the Masa Bittensor mainnet also makes MASA the first token of a Bittensor subnet project, undoubtedly providing a new option for the hundreds of millions of dollars of deposited funds in the Bittensor ecosystem.

At the same time, Masa has introduced the first dual-token reward model in the Bittensor ecosystem, allowing validators and working nodes of the Masa protocol and Masa Bittensor subnet to earn dual-token staking rewards through MASA and TAO. The TAO held by the Masa Foundation from subnet operations will be used to support MASA through buybacks or distributions as part of the emission plan.

In summary, if we sort out the core logic behind the collaboration between Masa and Bittensor, it is that TAO is the first AI sector leading ecological project listed on Binance this year, while MASA is the only leading project with a token in the Bittensor subnet ecosystem.

"Long-Termism": Masa's Steady Progress

If Bittensor is the leading star of the DeAI track, then Masa is, in a sense, a promising new player with great momentum.

It is worth noting that the core team of Masa inherently reflects the dual attributes of "technology + market" in its structure, as exemplified by its two co-founders:

• Masa co-founder Brendan Playford is a Web3 serial entrepreneur and blockchain technology veteran who began participating in Bitcoin mining in 2013, completed ICO financing for the crypto project DAG in 2017, and founded a big data project in 2020 that raised $17 million;
• The other co-founder, Calanthia Mei, has held positions as a leading investor in the overseas tech circle and as a former executive at Silicon Valley unicorns. In 2017, she co-founded the strategic investment department at PayPal, the world's largest payment company, and assisted in deploying over $300 million globally. In 2020, she joined a star tech project in Silicon Valley as part of the founding team and executive, completing $100 million in financing and later successfully exiting through a sale to a publicly listed company in the U.S.;

This may also be an exclusive competitive advantage that is difficult for other projects in the same track to replicate. Therefore, although the performance of the AI sector has been generally sluggish since TAO was listed on Binance, as a star player in the DeAI field, Masa has indeed delivered a remarkable combination of strategies over the past four months, demonstrating a solid long-term team ethos in both market actions and product and technology dimensions.

First, in terms of the market, MASA has almost become the new generation "top player" in the DeAI field in the first half of the year, shouldering the banner of investor attention on DeAI projects through continuous cooperation:

• On March 7, MASA landed on CoinList, becoming the first AI project to launch a community round token sale on CoinList in 2024, and was sold out in 17 minutes, with oversubscription exceeding 6.4 times, setting a new record;
• On April 11, MASA simultaneously launched on exchanges such as Bybit, HTX, KuCoin, Gate.io, CoinList, Pancakeswap, and Uniswap, with a 24-hour trading volume exceeding $100 million;

Secondly, in terms of project progress and product releases, whether it is the launch of the Masa AI data market or the introduction of a decentralized AI developer ecosystem, and the announcement of the first batch of 13 developer partner teams, Masa has been steadily advancing with a long-term focus.

Especially at the beginning of this month, the announcement of the network technology architecture and product application scenarios based on "Fair AI" is dedicated to leading the construction of a collaborative ecosystem that supports the development of Fair AI.

Moreover, broader DeAI ecosystem cooperation serves as a touchstone to test the project's influence and development potential in the industry. In this regard, Masa has achieved deep cooperation with several star projects over the past three months, including further collaboration with CoinList to launch a new MASA staking plan, as well as new partnerships with star developer projects in various AI fields such as AlloraBase, SpectralTelle, Theoriq, Sleepless AI, and GT Protocol.

In addition, as a leading player in the DeAI field, Masa has actively participated in or hosted a series of technical seminars, panel discussions, and various Web3 & AI events from Hong Kong in April to Brussels in July, including eight dialogue events on the banks of the Hong Kong and nine "AI & Web3" related peripheral activities during the ETHCC conference in Brussels, consistently engaging with builders to discuss new changes and developments in the AI track, while also envisioning potential paths for the integration of Web3 and AI in 2024 with industry leaders.

All of this suggests that if "DeAI in 2024 is like DeFi in 2020," then the currently somewhat cold market environment may be a good time to act, focusing on how to steadily prepare for the influx of new funds, new users, and new use cases.

Although the development trend of the AI sector remains unclear, once a warming trend appears in the second half of the year, Masa's continuous proactive layout will immediately translate into a unique competitive advantage—covering multiple aspects such as technology research and development, ecosystem cooperation, and market expansion, accumulating rich technical reserves and cooperative resources.

Therefore, if we narrow our focus to a macro perspective, we will find that the timing of Masa's release of the Bittensor subnet is indeed fortuitous:

If the aforementioned efforts have allowed Masa to continuously accumulate and strengthen its advantages in the DeAI competition over the past few months, it is like an athlete about to step onto the field, having undergone long-term rigorous training and preparation, now equipped with the strength to win, standing at the final juncture of great potential, just one step away from victory.

Thus, the launch of the Masa Bittensor subnet may be the moment that introduces massive funds, developer resources, and new innovative application scenarios into the Masa ecosystem, triggering this chain reaction.

1+1>2: The Bidirectional Coupling of Masa and Bittensor Ecosystem Resources

If TAO is the cornerstone and Beta of the "Web3 + AI" track, then Masa is the first Alpha in this vast ecosystem. In other words, after Masa releases the Bittensor subnet, it effectively opens up a bidirectional flow channel for the deposited funds and developer resources between Masa and the Bittensor ecosystem.

First, Masa's DeAI data services will further reach DeAI applications and developers globally, leading more projects to establish cooperative relationships with Masa, thereby continuously improving and expanding Masa's end application scenarios, bringing new business growth points and value creation channels to Masa.

Secondly, the existing developer resources from Bittensor can directly flow into the Masa ecosystem, facilitating various use case innovations based on the DeAI architecture, enhancing the internal boundless innovation variables of the Masa ecosystem.

For example, Masa has allowed developers to automate the processing of audio data from any podcast, efficiently handling text information for training AI agents in health and wellness scenarios; at the same time, Masa also permits developers to summarize product feedback and community sentiment based on conversation messages and user interaction data extracted from Discord servers, providing meaningful product feedback, and so on.

In short, the bidirectional coupling of Bittensor and Masa ecosystem resources can help more DeAI applications take root, and increasingly more users are expected to join the DeAI and Web3 ecosystem through the expanded scenario use cases of Masa and Bittensor, achieving the goal of Mass Adoption.

The traffic dividends brought by this "1+1>2" should not be underestimated—this not only benefits the Masa ecosystem but also allows the Bittensor platform to experience a noticeable increase in user growth and scenario innovation. More users and richer use cases mean significant traffic advantages, which can further enhance the market demand and recognition of TAO/MASA tokens, as well as create more commercial landing opportunities for Masa.

The prosperity of the ecosystem will inevitably lead to a significant increase in token value. As the first real-time token in the Bittensor subnet ecosystem, the MASA token, through the MASA/wTAO trading pair on Uniswap, not only directly expands liquidity trading channels but also becomes the only selectable target for the hundreds of millions of dollars of deposited funds in the broader Bittensor ecosystem after TAO, providing ample appreciation potential for MASA.

Conclusion

The real turning points often sprout quietly, especially in the face of technological narratives like DeAI, where individual perceptions and overall trends can often have significant discrepancies.

So, who will be the next Alpha in DeAI? When will it arrive? We cannot know, but from the front to the back, from TAO to MASA, from the ballast-like Beta to the new Alpha, the broader Bittensor ecosystem has always held an absolute dominant position in the "AI + Web3" narrative.

At least for now, especially with the launch of the Masa Bittensor subnet, Masa has already shown the posture of succeeding Bittensor (TAO) to become the "new generation Alpha." Let us wait and see.