Grant El-Deir

Met at: Capital Factory office in Austin, TX Met date: February 2025 Role(s): Subnet Owner @ Gittensor (BitTensor), Podcaster, Friend Last interaction: 2026-01-09 (Korean restaurant dinner + Gary's house strategy session)

Contact Information

• Location: Austin, TX (planning to move to Waterline, a 74-story building)

Professional Background

• Founder/owner of Gittensor, a BitTensor subnet focused on incentivizing open-source software contributions
• Been in BitTensor ecosystem for 1.5 years
• Hosts a BitTensor podcast (currently at 78 episodes) interviewing subnet founders and ecosystem players
• Self-described as "second generation" BitTensor builder (alongside Andrew Landon and Shaq)
• Top 30 subnet by emissions, paying out over $150,000/month to miners
• Top miner on his subnet makes $40,000/month
• Team recently became full-time (as of January 2026)
• Market cap around $30-35 million
• Focuses on skill-based competition rather than just compute reselling like other subnets
• Developed a tier system requiring 70%+ credibility (merged PRs) to receive payment
• Achieved 97% success rate for code generated to code used in production
• Building ELO rating system for coders similar to chess rankings
• Previously invested in subnets before starting his own
• Started Gittensor with Landon, Andrew (from college startup days), and briefly Phil
• Considers most existing BitTensor subnet owners as "first generation" who are complacent after making money
• Only goes to office on Thursdays
• Vibe codes internal tools all day (PR review agents, repository weight adjusters, etc.)
• Recently started modeling on the side with an Austin-based agency focused on lifestyle/sports
• Never been on a podcast as a guest, only as an interviewer (intentionally low public profile)

Personal Details

• Has a younger brother who recently graduated and is now trading
• Step-mom (not biological mom)
• Father lives in Rio; Grant planning trip to Brazil with his dad
• Doesn't play video games at all - only interested in "the game of life"
• Sleeps about 9 hours per night (11pm to 8am)
• Credits his creativity to isolation and not being "contaminated by conditioning"
• Values monetary validation over social validation ("I'm very self-aware")
• No personal social media presence
• Extremely high bias for action
• Wants to have many children (jokingly said 50, but seriously wants a huge family)
• Not currently dating, focusing on career ("once I get the Waterline, then I can be concerned about it")
• Did college startup with Landon, Andrew, and Phil making "Airbnb for office space"

Key Philosophy & Approach

• "A subnet is literally just a permissionless competition"
• Thinks most BitTensor builders are using it wrong (just buying and reselling compute)
• Believes subnets should be 100% skill-based to create real innovation
• Views BitTensor as "incentivism" - the next evolution after capitalism
• "If you can define the rules to the game to allow other people to validate the competition, you now have a subnet"
• Advocates for rewarding extreme virality to avoid bot problems ("you can't bot 100 million views")
• Credits game design thinking as his core skill
• Believes propaganda is "arguably the most valuable thing in the world" if you can program people's desires

Transcripts

Transcript ID	Date	Summary
2026-01-09-grant-el-deir-bittensor-propaganda-subnet	2026-01-09	Korean dinner + deep dive on BitTensor, propaganda subnet concept ("GSN"), viral content incentivization, game theory, career updates

Other Interactions (no transcript)

• February 2025: First meeting at Capital Factory office in Austin; bonded over OnlyFans crypto clone idea; discussed smart glasses apps

Strategic Value & Collaboration Areas

• Propaganda Subnet (GSN): Developed concept with Gary for incentivizing viral content creation; would reward top 3 viral pieces for any given "brief" across social media platforms
• Deep expertise in BitTensor subnet design and tokenomics
• Could help onboard Gary as a miner on Gittensor (potential $40K+/month)
• Has team that can help develop new subnets
• Willing to invest in or partner on subnet ideas Gary develops
• Offered to provide tau or partner directly on propaganda subnet
• Connected to BitTensor community (knows person who bought a subnet slot to give away)
• Understanding of game mechanics and incentive design

Connections & Network

• Mike (mutual connection): Friend who hated Grant's hardware innovation subnet idea
• Robin: First-generation BitTensor subnet owner with $200M+ and 4% tau emissions
• Landon & Andrew: Co-founders on Gittensor, met in college
• Phil: Former college co-founder, now building his own subnet in marketing awareness space
• BitTensor community: 78 podcast episodes worth of relationships
• Father connected to business (unclear specifics)

Notes & Observations

• Extremely focused and disciplined, works all day vibe coding
• Very analytical and game-theory oriented
• Low ego about public perception, high ego about competence
• Brutally honest about BitTensor ecosystem's problems
• Dislikes Mike's friend (the one who rejected his hardware subnet idea) - "punchable face"
• Prefers to ask questions on podcast rather than share opinions publicly
• Built podcast audience specifically to prepare for Dynamic Tau token launch and subnet ownership
• Strategic about timing - built credibility before asking for trust
• Very creative with random business ideas (Lunch Club, Chalpedia wiki alternative, hardware benchmarks)
• Thinks in terms of "the game" constantly

Key Quotes & Insights

• "The only reason I think BitTensor has potential is because every single person that's using BitTensor, like, currently... they're using it wrong."
• "Anything that can benefit from a permissionless competition should be a subnet."
• "The more Tau you have, the more you can say 'Hey, the world needs more of these cups' or 'Hey, the world needs more of these deepfake image detections.' You're basically able to direct the workforce of the world."
• "Propaganda is... this is the case for it being the most valuable thing possible. Because if you apply it to children... you can program someone to desire a specific thing."
• "This is the ultimate George Soros."
• "You would actually be perfect for [mining on Gittensor]."
• "I think you are genuinely probably the perfect person in the world and perfectly positioned to do this [propaganda subnet]."

Propaganda Subnet Concept (GSN)

Developed collaboratively during conversation:

• Concept: Incentivize viral content creation across all social media platforms
• Mechanism: Reward top 3 performers for each "brief" (narrative to push)
• Avoid bots: Extreme virality requirement means can't be botted (can't fake 100M views)
• API validation: Just call social media APIs for view counts
• Start: Fork BitCast (subnet 93), change reward from all creators to top 3 per brief
• Platform: Start with TikTok (easiest for new accounts to go viral), expand to X, YouTube, all platforms
• Use case: Christian propaganda, any cause, publisher book launches, etc.
• Token holders: Control which narratives get pushed
• Gary's role: Game master picking narratives, one of biggest alpha token holders
• Advantage: Layer on top of all social media, "unbannable" invisible hand
• Name ideas discussed: GSN (Gary Sheng / George Soros / God's Social Network)

Future Plans

• Hosting talk at BitTensor event in San Francisco end of March (teaching mining)
• Moving to Waterline building (74-story tower in Austin)
• Planning to onboard Gary to Gittensor as miner
• Collaborate on propaganda subnet development
• Continue building ELO rating system for coders
• Work toward physical-world subnets (long-term vision)

Recent Developments

• Team became full-time in January 2026
• Podcast at episode 78
• Started modeling on the side (did photo shoot 3 months ago)
• Upcoming interview with BitTensor co-founder (David Laue on June 4th, though rescheduled twice)
• Brother graduated and focused on trading/course creation