Sell capacity

A node becomes a provider when it offers one model source to the network, reachable at a public HTTPS URL, and is paid in USDG through the escrow. Buyer and seller are two views of the same node.

Honest status: the pieces below are real and tested on the Robinhood testnet with the test token MockUSDG (paid trades settled locally, between two nodes, and once through a Cloudflare tunnel). A seller backed by a real model reached from a second machine on another network has not been run yet. Mainnet is untouched. Read STATUS first.

What you need#

Steps#

1. Install and run the node as a service: INSTALL. Use --no-demo so no simulated peers appear.
2. Attach the model source (Connect → Detect local, or ELYRA_UPSTREAM_URL).
3. Expose only /p2p/* and /healthz over HTTPS:
   textCOPY

   seller.example.com {
     @p2p path /p2p/* /healthz
     handle @p2p { reverse_proxy 127.0.0.1:8545 }
     respond 404
   }
   

   The panel text mentions --host 0.0.0.0; prefer this loopback + proxy layout. The node's own guard blocks /api and /v1 from non-loopback, but do not rely on one guard.
4. Configure: ELYRA_PUBLIC_URL, ELYRA_PROVIDE=1, ELYRA_PROVIDE_PRICE, ELYRA_PAYOUT, ELYRA_NETWORK, ELYRA_ESCROW (CONFIGURATION); or use the Provide view.
5. Fund the wallet with testnet ETH (address on Payments).
6. Verify from outside: curl https://seller.example.com/p2p/hello returns signed JSON listing your model; curl -i https://seller.example.com/api/status must return 404 (not data, not 403).
7. From a buyer node: Network → add https://seller.example.com; it should appear LIVE with your model. Deposit mock USDG, send a request, and check the receipt and an on-chain redeem (explorer link under Payments).

How you are paid#

1. The buyer's node sends a sealed, signed request; you answer and return a signed receipt (model, tokens, price, amount).
2. The buyer verifies it (signature, parties, price within 5% of the quote, amount = price x tokens, token count not inflated) before signing a cumulative voucher.
3. You redeem the latest voucher on-chain; the escrow pays you exactly that amount of USDG.

Money is USD per million tokens, rounded to 1e-8, settled in 6-decimal USDG: no oracle, no exchange rate. Gas is ETH.

Risk controls (provider side)#

On SIGTERM the node redeems what it holds (bounded to 20 s) before exiting.

Privacy: what you can and cannot claim#

A normal seller can read prompts: label it none. Do not set the TEE claim unless you really run the official image in Google Confidential Space; even then buyers only treat you as private when a Google-signed attestation passes their trust list, and that path has only been proven against a simulated Google (TEE). Sealed transport hides prompts from the network, not from you.

Pricing#

Your price per MTok must exceed your cost per MTok actually served. Start on a cheap CPU box with a small model; rent a GPU only after a buyer exists. A 1B model on 8 CPU cores answered a short prompt in about 1 s warm.

Things that bite#

• Gossip refuses private/LAN peer URLs unless --allow-private-peers (operator-typed peers are exempt).
• Both sides must use the same escrow or there is no route.
• Real USDG (mainnet) is unaudited territory: the escrow is unaudited and the USDG supply controller can burn from any address. Mainnet needs --allow-mainnet and your informed decision.
• Mock USDG is minted by anyone and has no value.