Network Min Lock Cost
Network min lock cost is a network-global setting, listed in the documentation as
NetworkMinLockCost, that defines the minimum TAO required to pay for subnet registration. It is
the floor of the lock cost charged when a participant creates a new subnet
(Subnet Hyperparameters,
Create a Subnet).
What It Controls
The setting bounds the low end of the subnet-creation lock cost; it does not set the exact price a creator pays at any moment. Subnet registration takes a TAO lock cost that is recycled when a new subnet is created, and this value is the documented minimum that cost cannot fall below (Create a Subnet, Glossary: Burn Cost, Recycling and burning).
Because it is a floor rather than the live price, the actual cost to register a subnet can sit above this minimum when recent creations have pushed the cost up, and it eases back toward this floor as time passes without new registrations (Create a Subnet).
Subnet Creation Is Also Rate-Limited
Price is not the only constraint on adding subnets. The rate-limits reference lists
NetworkRateLimit as a 14,400-block interval, about two days, between successful new-subnet
registrations, and a too-soon repeat returns NetworkTxRateLimitExceeded. The create-a-subnet guide
states the same pacing and notes that the live value can be queried from
subtensorModule.networkRateLimit()
(Chain Rate Limits: Network registration rate limit,
Create a Subnet).
Scope and Permission
Network min lock cost is a global value rather than a per-subnet hyperparameter, so it is not tuned
separately for each subnet. The documentation groups it with variables configured under root
permission and changed through the sudo_set_network_min_lock_cost extrinsic
(Subnet Hyperparameters).
Because it applies network-wide, the same floor governs the creation cost for any new subnet at a given time, in contrast with per-subnet hyperparameters that carry independent values on each netuid (Subnet Hyperparameters, Bittensor Networks).
The startup constant for this floor is exposed as
api.consts.subtensorModule.initialNetworkMinLockCost, listed as 1000000000000. Since one TAO is
one billion RAO, that startup value corresponds to 1000 TAO; the live NetworkMinLockCost storage
value can still be changed at root permission after launch
(Subtensor Constants: initialNetworkMinLockCost,
Glossary: Rao,
Subnet Hyperparameters).
Checking the Current Subnet-Creation Cost
Because the lock cost moves over time, the live amount is chain state rather than a fixed constant. Readers can see the current cost to register a new subnet through the BTCLI subnet-creation flow, which reports the lock cost before a subnet is created, while this setting remains the documented minimum that the cost cannot drop below (Create a Subnet, Glossary: Burn Cost).
Distinction from Subnet Registration
Subnet registration is the process that pays a lock cost to open a new subnet. Network min lock cost is the floor on the TAO amount that process can charge, so registration is the action while this setting bounds its lowest price (Create a Subnet, Glossary: Register).
- Subnet registration — the process of paying the lock cost to create a subnet.
- Network min lock cost — the floor on what that process can charge.
Distinction from Burn Cost
Burn cost is the TAO required to create a new subnet at a given moment, recycled on creation. Network min lock cost is the documented minimum that this cost cannot fall below, so burn cost is the live price while this setting is its lower bound (Glossary: Burn Cost, Create a Subnet).
- Burn cost — the live TAO lock cost to create a subnet.
- Network min lock cost — the floor that live cost cannot go below.
Distinction from Min Burn
Min burn is a per-subnet hyperparameter that floors the dynamic TAO burn for registering a neuron on an existing subnet. Network min lock cost is a network-global floor on the cost to create a new subnet, so they bound different registration events at different scopes (Subnet Hyperparameters, Create a Subnet).
- Min burn — per-subnet floor on the neuron registration burn.
- Network min lock cost — network-global floor on the subnet-creation cost.
Reader Boundary
This page defines the concept at a high level. It does not report the live cost to register a subnet, which moves with demand and time and should be checked through the current subnet-creation flow. It names only the network-global floor that the subnet-creation lock cost cannot fall below.