Security and risks

Taoswap never holds your funds

Taoswap is non-custodial. You keep your keys, Taoswap never has access to your keys or your seed phrase, and every transaction is initiated and signed by you, in your own wallet. If you lose your keys, Taoswap cannot recover them.

With a browser extension, Taoswap only asks the extension for a signature. The extension shows its own approval window.
The built-in wallet keeps its seed phrase encrypted with your password in this browser. The seed phrase is never sent anywhere.
A limit order reserves nothing: your funds stay in your wallet until the order fills.

What you sign

Taoswap asks for two kinds of signatures.

Transactions change your balances on Bittensor and pay a network fee: swaps and stakes, transfers, claims of root rewards, an on-chain cancel of a limit order, and the tools for proxies and subnet owners.

Messages cost no network fee, but some of them authorize an action, so read them as carefully as a transaction:

placing a limit order;
cancelling a limit order for free, where you sign the line “Cancel Taoswap limit order” followed by its identifier;
showing your limit orders in a new browser;
claiming from the testnet faucet;
any text you choose to sign with Sign message in Portfolio.

Sign message refuses the lines that Taoswap signs for itself.

Check before you approve

In a browser extension, read the request before you approve it. A buy of alpha appears as subtensorModule.addStakeLimit, a sale as removeStakeLimit or removeStakeFullLimit, and a swap between two subnets as swapStakeLimit or moveStakeLimit.
In the built-in wallet, Approve Transaction decodes the request from the exact bytes you are about to sign. It refuses to sign what it cannot decode. It warns you when funds go to another account than the one you entered, and when the network is not a known Bittensor chain.

Protect your wallet

Never share your seed phrase. Taoswap will never ask for your seed phrase or your funds, and nobody from Taoswap will message you first.
Sign limit orders only from Taoswap’s order card, and never approve a signature request you do not understand, on any site.
Open Taoswap at taoswap.org. Is this really Taoswap? lists every official site and account.
Prefer a browser extension wallet. If you use the built-in wallet, keep your seed phrase offline and choose Lock Wallet when you step away.
Only save your own node on Network status. A dishonest node can fake prices, read what you sign or change it.
Transfers cannot be undone. Before you send alpha to an exchange, check that it accepts alpha: most do not.
If you add a proxy, give it a delay. With no delay, a stolen delegate key can move your funds before you can react.

Risks of trading and staking

The Terms of Service list the risks you accept. In short:

Market: TAO and alpha prices can swing widely, and you can lose some or all of what you put in.
Slippage and price impact: the price you get can differ from the quote, and thin pools move a lot on large trades. See Swaps and slippage.
Fees: network fees vary, and a failed transaction still pays its fee.
Estimates: prices, amounts, rewards and yields shown in the app are estimates.
MEV: bots can trade around a visible swap. MEV Shield reduces this risk but cannot remove it.
Validators: rewards depend on the validator you stake with, and are not guaranteed.
Protocol and software: the Bittensor chain, its contracts and the app can have bugs, and the network can be slow or down.
Limit orders: an order is not guaranteed to fill. If its funds are gone when it triggers, it is skipped, then retried until it expires.
Experimental features: features marked Alpha, Beta or Experimental can change, stop or give inaccurate results.
Regulation: the status of digital assets and staking depends on your country and can change.

Taoswap gives no financial advice.