Validator

For Validators

Validators are Byzantium's quality control. They make sure the attention miners deliver is real — not bots, spam, or fake engagement — and they score miners so the network rewards genuine work.

What a validator does

• Reads the data on each miner's activity — the real attention they drove.
• Filters out bots, spam, and fake engagement.
• Scores miners by the genuine attention they delivered.
• Submits those scores to Bittensor, which turns them into rewards.

Honest, accurate scoring is what keeps the market fair — so validators earn ن for doing it well.

How validation rolls out

We're taking validation in two phases, on purpose.

Phase 1 — Internal validation (now). At launch, Byzantium runs validation itself. This lets us build and tune our spam-and-bot filter against real miner activity, and harden it against real-world attacks — without exposing an immature filter that could be gamed.

Phase 2 — Open participation (later). Once the filter is robust and proven on real data, we release the validator software so anyone can run a validator and help secure the network.

What's open, and what stays private

We'll be straight about this. Byzantium is transparent where it builds trust, and private where openness would only help attackers.

• Open and verifiable — the attention we score is built on public data: real engagement on X and Farcaster that anyone can read. The resulting scores are visible too. Validators can independently check that scores track genuine, public activity.
• Private by design — the exact anti-fraud method (how we separate real attention from bots and farming) stays private. A spam filter that publishes its own rulebook is a spam filter that gets gamed. Keeping the method private is what keeps it working — and it protects honest miners from those trying to cheat.

As the network matures, more of the system opens up — but that principle holds.

Why phase it this way

A scoring system that can be gamed is worse than no system at all. Getting the filter right first — privately, on real data — protects miners from being mis-scored and protects the integrity of the whole network. Decentralization comes once the foundation is solid.

Run a validator

Open validator participation arrives in Phase 2.