In the same way that there are no “good” or “bad” open source projects … There is no such thing as “good” or “bad” incentive mechanisms (IM) on Bittensor. Subnet IMs are either effective or ineffective at continuously producing a given useful computational commodity.

Correspondingly— The big fundamental difference between an IM and a conventional startup business model (BM) is that BMs require attachment to fiat as the representation of value capture (and focus on the input of work that is measured as the cost basis for a market to then price) — whereas value creation is never represented anywhere and always subjective.

IMs, OTOH, focus only on measuring and rewarding the OUTPUT of a useful work, not its input. This allows for representing both value capture AND value creation in the currency of the subnet.

This is nuanced and counterintuitive for most to understand. But it is extremely profound. And it will upgrade and transform all of capitalism. Slowly. Then all at once.