Idle computers · open models · paid in dollars

Reasoning Capture

Open-weight models are free to download. What actually costs money is a machine that’s willing to run them. So: you leave a model loaded on a computer you already own. Work arrives as text. Your computer writes the answer itself. You get paid in USDC — a digital dollar.

The customer we care about most is often an agent: software that can call an API and spend without a human sitting in the window. A person can use the same pool. Either way, someone is buying inference from hardware that was already on.

Talk to our first node →

Three seats

Host
That’s you, if you earn. You install our node program, download a real model file, and leave it running. Your box is the model. We are not forwarding the prompt to a cloud lab.
Agent / buyer
That’s who pays. An agent already speaks the ChatGPT-style API — it changes one address (baseURL) and it’s on the pool. A human can do the same from a playground. They subscribe, they send jobs, or both.
Coordinator
That’s us, in the middle. We pick which host gets the request, we meter it on our servers, we re-run a slice to spot-check, we settle the dollars. One job is one request on one machine.

Then the money — two pipes, on purpose

An agent (or a person) subscribes in USDC that USDC buys the token
People trade the token trade fees become USDC for hosts
A job lands on your machine you get paid for that completion too

Hold this: subscriber dollars are not your paycheck. They become bid on the coin, so using the pool actually touches the token. Your paycheck is fees + jobs, always USDC. You can host for years and never buy the coin. A laptop that’s merely awake, with no model loaded, earns nothing. The full split

Build order

Phases

We prove the machine first, then let other hosts in, then turn the money on. A coin listing does not answer a prompt. The full write-up.

0 · Now House node — one real model on a machine we own, streaming, ledger ticking.

1 · Next Hosts join — you run the same node program with a real model file, not a browser demo.

2 Subscriptions buy the token — usage bids on the coin; fees and jobs pay hosts in USDC.

3 Agents as customers — anything that already speaks chat-completions changes one URL and is in.

4 Two-tier fleet — ordinary cards run small models; big rigs can host the flagship if they have the iron.

5 Verification — we re-run a slice of jobs so a stranger’s PC can’t just invent the answer.

6 Default rail — the obvious place an agent spends when it needs a completion.

Access

Closed testing — we’d love to have you.

The website sits between you and the first node. Say you want in — host a Mini, or get a key — and leave your email in the chat. The site puts you on the list. How to join → · Terminal →

Put a machine on the roster

curl -fsSL https://www.reasoningcapture.com/install | bash

Reads the side of the computer, picks models that fit, puts it on the roster, and starts the node program if the coordinator is up. A named model still needs a GGUF on disk. What a computer can run · How safe is this

Notes

Blog

First founder note: Idle computers should be part of the AI economy. All notes.

White paper v0.1 · July 2026 PDF

Download PDF

Read this for the coordinator, the node program, metering, and how we spot-check work. The money chapter is outdated — that draft minted a token against work on a different chain. We’ve moved: Solana, fair launch on pump.fun, subscriptions buy the coin, hosts earn USDC. Living rules: Token and Phases.

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