# 5. Root vs alpha split

In the Bittensor ecosystem, holders of tao may stake to a validator in a subnet in two different ways:

_Source: https://beta.taostats.io/docs/concepts/how-emission-works/stakeholder-emissions-root-vs-alpha_

_Last reviewed: 2026-09-15_

> [!NOTE]
> **Where we are — step 5 of the [emission flow](https://beta.taostats.io/docs/concepts/how-emission-works)**
>
> How we got here:
>
> 1. [TAO emission](https://beta.taostats.io/docs/concepts/how-emission-works/tao-emission) — TAO split across subnets.
> 2. [Alpha emission](https://beta.taostats.io/docs/concepts/how-emission-works/alpha-emission) — each subnet mints `alpha_in` + `alpha_out`.
> 3. [Split `alpha_out` among participants](https://beta.taostats.io/docs/concepts/how-emission-works/split-alpha-out) — owner / miners / validators.
> 4. [Parent / child hotkeys](https://beta.taostats.io/docs/concepts/how-emission-works/emission-parent-hotkeys) — aggregate each validator's dividends.
>
> **This page (step 5):** divide the validator's dividends into a root proportion and an alpha proportion.

In the Bittensor ecosystem, holders of tao may stake to a validator in a subnet in two different ways:

* **Root stake** : Staking to a validator in subnet 0, the root subnet.
* **Alpha Stake**: Staking to a validator in a subnet, exchanging your tao for alpha token.

![Flow diagram of child/parent hotkey allocations entering a validator and a root:alpha split producing alpha-denominated local stake and tao-denominated root stake](https://beta.taostats.io/images/docs/concepts/taostats-root-alpha-stake-split-diagram.png)

The ratio of root: alpha staked is calculated using the `root_proportion`.

## Calculating root proportion

`root proportion` is calculated from 3 values:

* **tao on root**: The total amount of tao on root.
* **alpha issued**: The sum of `alpha_in` and `alpha_out` (all alpha emitted)
* **tao\_weight**: a variable set by the chain.  The current `tao_weight` is 0.18.

$$
root_{proportion} = \dfrac{tao_{weight}\, tao_{staked}}{tao_{weight}\, tao_{staked} + alpha_{issued}}
$$

### Current Root prop

Root proportion will change every block, as the tao and alpha values will have increased.  The results can be charted over time:

![At day 0 there are 6M tao available.](https://beta.taostats.io/images/docs/concepts/9832735c-Screenshot_2025-02-03_at_22.27.36.jpg)

The chart will vary on the amount of tao available at the moment the subnet is created. The above chart shows day 0 = 6 million tao.

On day 0 of the subnet, 100% of emission will go to root stakeholders.

50% root: 50% alpha is met at approximately day 70 (this is highly variable, and just an estimate).

> [!NOTE]
> **Each Subnet has a statistics page showing the Root proportion chart for the subnet.**
>
> [https://beta.taostats.io/subnets/75/statistics](https://beta.taostats.io/subnets/75/statistics)

In this second chart, the yellow/green subnet is created 100 days after the blue/red subnet (9,720,000 tao, and 0 alpha for the 2nd subnet):

![Line chart plotting root and alpha proportion (percent) versus time in days for two subnets, with the second pair time-shifted from the first](https://beta.taostats.io/images/docs/concepts/taostats-root-alpha-proportion-decay-chart.jpg)

### What's next

The validator's dividends are now split into a root share and an alpha share. The final step distributes each to stakeholders:

* **Step 6a — [Stakeholder emissions: root](https://beta.taostats.io/docs/concepts/how-emission-works/stakeholder-emissions-root)**
* **Step 6b — [Stakeholder emissions: alpha](https://beta.taostats.io/docs/concepts/how-emission-works/stakeholder-emissions-alpha)**