Remove abusable code from subnet template

neurons/miner.py

@@ -88,24 +88,29 @@ async def blacklist(
         - Reject if the hotkey is not a registered entity within the metagraph.
         - Consider blacklisting entities that are not validators or have insufficient stake.
 
-        In practice it would be wise to blacklist requests from entities that are not validators, or do not have
+        In practice you MUST blacklist requests from entities that are not validators, or do not have
         enough stake. This can be checked via metagraph.S and metagraph.validator_permit. You can always attain
-        the uid of the sender via a metagraph.hotkeys.index( synapse.dendrite.hotkey ) call.
+        the uid of the sender via a metagraph.hotkeys.index( synapse.dendrite.hotkey ) call after checking that the type of dendrite.hotkey is not None.
 
         Otherwise, allow the request to be processed further.
         """
-        # TODO(developer): Define how miners should blacklist requests.
-        uid = self.metagraph.hotkeys.index(synapse.dendrite.hotkey)
+        # TODO (developer): Define how miners should blacklist requests.
+        # check for missing hotkey malformed request to avoid throwing ValueError on metagraph.hotkeys.index (unhandled exception)
+        if not synapse.dendrite.hotkey:
+            return True, "Missing hotkey/Malformed request"
+
+        # Ignore requests from un-registered entities unless permitted.
         if (
             not self.config.blacklist.allow_non_registered
             and synapse.dendrite.hotkey not in self.metagraph.hotkeys
         ):
-            # Ignore requests from un-registered entities.
             bt.logging.trace(
                 f"Blacklisting un-registered hotkey {synapse.dendrite.hotkey}"
             )
             return True, "Unrecognized hotkey"
 
+        uid = self.metagraph.hotkeys.index(synapse.dendrite.hotkey)
+
         if self.config.blacklist.force_validator_permit:
             # If the config is set to force validator permit, then we should only allow requests from validators.
             if not self.metagraph.validator_permit[uid]:
@@ -114,11 +119,18 @@ async def blacklist(
                 )
                 return True, "Non-validator hotkey"
 
+        stake = self.metagraph.S[uid].item()
+
+        # ignore minimal weight validators that should not be directly contacting a miner's synpase due to the lack of weight setting capability.
+        if stake < self.config.blacklist.minimum_stake:
+            return True, "Minimal stake validator"
+
         bt.logging.trace(
             f"Not Blacklisting recognized hotkey {synapse.dendrite.hotkey}"
         )
         return False, "Hotkey recognized!"
 
+
     async def priority(self, synapse: template.protocol.Dummy) -> float:
         """
         The priority function determines the order in which requests are handled. More valuable or higher-priority

template/utils/config.py

@@ -144,6 +144,13 @@ def add_miner_args(cls, parser):
         default=False,
     )
 
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--blacklist.minimum_stake",
+        type=int,
+        help="If set, we will force incoming requests to have a weight settable stake.",
+        default=1024,
+    )
+
     parser.add_argument(
         "--wandb.project_name",
         type=str,