Your machine joins, proves its speed, runs verified work, and
earns — all measured, never assumed.
There are two pieces: the controller (the brain,
runs on a server) and your node (the agent, runs on your
machine). Here's the whole journey of a node.
1
Associate Your
node connects to the controller over an encrypted link and announces what
hardware it has. Nothing sensitive leaves your machine.
2
Attest — measured,
not claimed The controller runs a short benchmark to measure your
machine's real speed and places it in a tier. Claimed specs are never
trusted.
3
Work You only
receive jobs your tier, region, and data-class allow. Every job runs in a
locked sandbox: questions in, answers out. Your files are never touched.
4
Verify Answers
are spot-checked against known-good prompts, and a fraction of jobs are run
again on other nodes to cross-check. Only verified work is paid.
5
Settle Verified
work accrues to a fiat credit ledger and pays out at a threshold. The ledger is
double-entry and always balances to zero — a built-in honesty check.
Your tier is earned by your hardware's measured speed, not by
anything you claim.
Heartbeats — how the two stay in sync
Once connected, your node sends a small heartbeat to the
controller every few seconds — a quick "still here, still healthy" signal.
The console shows the state of this connection:
State
What it means
IN SYNC
A heartbeat succeeded very
recently — node and controller fully agree. Healthy.
DEGRADED
Still reachable, but
heartbeats are lagging. Usually a brief hiccup; it self-corrects.
OFFLINE
No recent heartbeat. The
node keeps running local jobs and re-syncs automatically when the
connection returns.
Running models on your own
Your node doesn't need the controller to be useful. It can run a model
locally, right now, offline — the built-in model always
works, and any model you install can be tested with one click from the dashboard
or the WebUI. That's also the fastest way to prove your node is healthy: if it
can answer a prompt locally, the machine is working.
See the Troubleshooting page if the node ever
shows an error — it explains every state in plain language.