The new incubator, ‘tao5’, will support subnets on Bittensor and operate one of the largest validators on the network. Tekin Salimi, founder and managing partner of dao5, will spearhead tao5’s incubation pipeline.

dao5 Acquires Third Largest Validator on the Bittensor Network and Launches New Incubator Program

Jordon@150Bond.com

Today, crypto investment firm dao5 has announced the launch of ‘tao5’, a new incubator dedicated to supporting early-stage subnets on the Bittensor protocol. This initiative follows dao5’s successful acquisition of OWL Ventures’ network validator, which is currently the third largest validator by stake in the Bittensor ecosystem. Combining this validator with the new incubator program will enable tao5 to better contribute to the protocol’s security and governance.

Bittensor has seen remarkable growth over the past year, boasting over 60 active subnets with many more in development. This has captured the attention and imagination of the decentralized artificial intelligence community. Bittensor is currently the leading ecosystem for attracting the strongest talent in collaborative, open-source AI research.

Tekin Salimi, founder of dao5, first discovered the project in 2021 and immediately took notice of the high-quality AI talent within the burgeoning community and its vision of a decentralized AI network that rewards open collaboration and innovation. This led his firm to invest early in TAO through various over-the-counter (OTC) token purchases from miners in the project’s Discord channel.

“Our goal is to help further enhance the caliber of technical teams building subnets on Bittensor. We believe that the fair and open ethos of TAO makes it the most promising ecosystem to attract best-in-class AI founders,” says Salimi.

At the time of this release, tao5 has already closed its first incubation partnership with Eternis, the technical team behind the ‘Lean In’ subnet [SN#63]. This ambitious project aspires to develop an AI system capable of formally proving complex mathematical hypotheses. As a related example, DeepMind's AlphaGeometry model has already demonstrated Olympiad-level problem-solving capabilities in geometry, showcasing the potential of AI in mathematical reasoning.

“Our inspiration for ‘Lean In’ stemmed from our desire to take meaningful steps toward building an AI Mathematician and, ultimately, to support the development of a decentralized ‘state root of knowledge’ within Eternis. This system aims to provide structured data and knowledge sources for various sectors. Working with Bittensor and tao5 has marked the beginning of a strong partnership,” said Srikar Varadaraj, founder of Eternis.

tao5 is actively looking to identify emerging AI talent within the Bittensor community. If you are a founder interested in exploring collaboration opportunities, please contact contact@tao5.com and follow us on X at @tao_five.

About dao5:

dao5 is an experimental cryptocurrency asset manager that will convert into a decentralized autonomous organization. The firm was founded in 2022 by Tekin Salimi, a former general partner at Polychain Capital, and focuses on early-stage investments in transformative crypto protocols and companies, including Berachain, EigenLayer, Story Protocol, and Movement Labs.

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