Coldkeys (Bittensor)
A coldkey is the long-term, security-sensitive key in Bittensor. It controls TAO and stake and is used to sign financial operations (Coldkey, Wallets, Coldkeys and Hotkeys).
What It Represents
A coldkey holds TAO balances and delegated stake, authorizes staking, unstaking, transfers, and subnet ownership actions, and controls one or more hotkeys used for operational roles (Glossary: Coldkey, Glossary: Stake, Glossary: Transfer).
Coldkey material belongs off live miner and validator nodes. Hotkeys handle routine subnet traffic; the coldkey remains the custody anchor for fund movement (Coldkey and hotkey workstation security).
Coldkey examples from one network environment should not be read as representing production custody or stake state on another (Bittensor Networks).
Protecting the Recovery Secret
Because the coldkey anchors all of that authority, the seed phrase behind it has to survive two distinct failure modes. The seed-phrase guidance separates losing the secret, meaning no longer having access to it, from leaking it, meaning accidentally giving someone else access. To guard against loss it requires keeping redundant backups in separate, secure physical locations, and warns that if all access to the seed phrase and initialized wallets is lost, access to the account and its TAO and stake is permanently and unrecoverably gone (Handle your Seed Phrase Securely).
Distinction from Hotkeys
Coldkeys hold funds and sign financial operations. Hotkeys perform operational subnet roles such as registration and weight submission without holding TAO balances (Glossary: Coldkey, Glossary: Hotkey).
- Coldkey — custody anchor for TAO, stake, and financial operations.
- Hotkey — operational key for subnet roles on online infrastructure.
Because of that split, the coldkey is kept offline as the owner key that authorizes high-value actions such as transfers, staking, and unstaking, while the hotkey stays online on the running machine to sign a neuron’s routine actions (Wallets, Coldkeys and Hotkeys, Glossary: Hotkey).
Distinction from Wallet Address
A coldkey is the security-critical signing key. A wallet address is the coldkey’s public-key-derived identifier used to receive TAO (Glossary: Wallet Address).
- Coldkey — the security-critical signing key controlling TAO and stake.
- Wallet address — the coldkey’s public identifier used to receive TAO.
Distinction from Coldkey Swap
Coldkey swap is the staged migration that replaces a compromised or aging coldkey with a new one while preserving hotkeys, balances, and subnet registrations (Rotate or Swap your Coldkey).
- Coldkey — the identity being protected.
- Coldkey swap — lifecycle operation that re-homes that identity.
Distinction from Hotkey Swap
Hotkey swap rotates the operational key under the same coldkey without changing coldkey ownership (Coldkey and Hotkey Workstation Security).
- Coldkey — ownership key that controls hotkeys.
- Hotkey swap — operational-key rotation under the unchanged coldkey.
Distinction from Proxy Wallets
A proxy wallet grants a separate account scoped authority to submit specific calls without changing which coldkey owns the wallet (Proxies overview).
- Coldkey — ownership key that controls funds, stake, and paired hotkeys.
- Proxy wallet — scoped authority to submit specific calls.
Distinction from Existential Deposit
The existential deposit is the minimum TAO a coldkey balance must keep to remain represented on chain; falling below it can reap the account state without changing which coldkey controls the wallet (Wallets, Coldkeys and Hotkeys, Glossary: Existential Deposit).
- Coldkey — the key that controls the wallet’s TAO and stake.
- Existential deposit — minimum balance that keeps the coldkey account represented on chain.
Distinction from Regenerating a Key
Regenerating a key can restore a coldkey from its mnemonic when local files are lost (Glossary: Regenerating a Key).
- Coldkey — the custody key that controls TAO and hotkeys.
- Regenerating a key — recovery from mnemonic when local files are lost.
Distinction from Seed Phrase
A seed phrase is the offline recovery words that can restore coldkey access if the key is lost (Glossary: Seed Phrase).
- Coldkey — authority used to sign sensitive actions.
- Seed phrase — recovery material that can restore the coldkey.
Distinction from Seed Phrase Security
Seed phrase security names how recovery words are stored and protected (Handle your Seed Phrase/Mnemonic Securely).
- Coldkey — custody key whose recovery words carry the highest-consequence authority.
- Seed phrase security — practices for protecting those recovery words.
Distinction from Bittensor CLI: Permissions Guide
BTCLI permissions name which command-line actions require coldkey authority versus hotkey authority (Bittensor CLI: Permissions Guide).
- Coldkey — security-sensitive key that controls TAO and stake.
- BTCLI permissions — which CLI actions require coldkey authority.
Distinction from Yuma Consensus
Coldkeys are custody keys that hold TAO and authorize wallet actions such as staking and transfers. That custody and signing vocabulary is separate from the tempo pass that converts validator weight submissions into emission shares (Coldkey, Wallets, Coldkeys and Hotkeys).
Validators use hotkeys for routine subnet operations while coldkeys stay offline for financial moves. Yuma still aggregates on-chain weight submissions and credits miner incentives and validator dividends when the epoch boundary arrives (Yuma Consensus, Emission).
Readers should keep custody-key vocabulary and subnet-settlement vocabulary separate. Coldkeys authorize stake moves; Yuma names how evaluation signals become credited shares on a netuid (Glossary: Stake).
- Coldkey — custody key that holds TAO and authorizes wallet actions.
- Yuma Consensus — on-chain weight aggregation that settles emissions.
Reader Boundary
A coldkey is the custody and financial-signing key in Bittensor wallet vocabulary. It is not a hotkey, a seed phrase by itself, or permission to run routine subnet traffic on live nodes (Glossary: Coldkey).