When token is burned - it is no longer accessible and not a part of the circulating supply

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Recycled vs. burned

Recycled tao/alpha just becomes unissued - ready to be emitted again at a later date

Burned tao/alpha is destroyed. This token no longer exists, and cannot be used.

• Tao extrinsic (transaction) fees are recycled, not burned — the tao is subtracted from total issuance and becomes available to be emitted again later (this defers the halving slightly). Since runtime 445 the fee is also not paid to the block author. See Recycling and the Runtime 445 explainer.

Alpha

• Mining emission to the subnet owner hotkey is burned.
• Subnet owners can burn alpha
• Subsidized subnets: the validator alpha that would be converted to tao for root emissions is burned.