Remove abusable code from subnet template

neurons/miner.py

@@ -88,36 +88,51 @@ 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)
-        if (
-            not self.config.blacklist.allow_non_registered
-            and synapse.dendrite.hotkey not in self.metagraph.hotkeys
-        ):
-            # Ignore requests from un-registered entities.
+        # TODO (developer): Define how miners should blacklist requests.
+        try:
+            # 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
+            ):
+                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]:
+                    bt.logging.warning(
+                        f"Blacklisting a request from non-validator hotkey {synapse.dendrite.hotkey}"
+                    )
+                    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"Blacklisting un-registered hotkey {synapse.dendrite.hotkey}"
+                f"Not Blacklisting recognized hotkey {synapse.dendrite.hotkey}"
             )
-            return True, "Unrecognized 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]:
-                bt.logging.warning(
-                    f"Blacklisting a request from non-validator hotkey {synapse.dendrite.hotkey}"
-                )
-                return True, "Non-validator hotkey"
-
-        bt.logging.trace(
-            f"Not Blacklisting recognized hotkey {synapse.dendrite.hotkey}"
-        )
-        return False, "Hotkey recognized!"
+            return False, "Hotkey recognized!"
+        except Exception as e:
+            bt.logging.error(f"Exception in blacklist_fn: {str(e)}")
+            return True, "Blacklist error"
 
     async def priority(self, synapse: template.protocol.Dummy) -> float:
         """

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,