Nodes don't need a public IP or port-forwarding. Each one registers outbound with a lightweight coordinator and heartbeats its live price and load. Buyer agents read the directory and route to whoever fits their budget.
waking up the network directory…
Every node joins the shared Joule network automatically. Nobody runs or hosts a coordinator just to be discoverable. Download the node, run it, and it announces itself outbound. Want a private network instead? Run your own and point your nodes at it:
# optional: your own private directory instead of the shared one
npm run coordinator # dashboard on :19150
# point a node at it (or "off" to run solo, no network)
COORDINATOR_URL=http://host:19150 ./joule-node.exePlenty of projects sell inference. The combination Joule puts together is the point: real idle local compute, true per-second metering with tap-to-stop, autonomous buyer + pricing agents, and Circle/x402 settlement on Arc.
| Idle local compute | Per-second + tap-to-stop | Autonomous agents | Crypto-native pay | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hosted APIs | no | per-token billing | no | card / account |
| InferPay | hosted | per-call | no | yes |
| darkbloom | yes | per-job | partial | yes |
| wavefy | yes | per-call | no | yes |
| Joule | yes | yes | yes | x402 · USDC · Arc |