About Citrate and the Cnidarian Foundation
What We Are Building
Citrate is an open-source Layer 1 blockchain. Its designed from the ground up to make distributed AI cooperative rather than competitive. The protocol unifies consensus and federated learning so that every block production event simultaneously improves the models running on the network.
The Cnidarian Foundation is the nonprofit research organization that publishes research, builds on its findings, coordinates the ATIS hardware research program, and provided the governance framework for the Mozi Cooperative.
Who Is Building It
Larry Klosowski is the founder of Citrate and the Cnidarian Foundation. His background spans blockchain development, AI systems research, and cooperative economics. His mother worked in school accounting for 30 years as head of accounts payable... watching her stress over tight budgets and outdated computers is what planted the seed for Citrate's education mission. He has built production blockchain infrastructure and spent years thinking about how distributed computing and public institutions could support each other.
The Gradient Papers were co-authored with Lauren Mendenhall with assistance from claude(Opus 4.5/4.6). We list AI collaborators explicitly because we believe in transparency, and honesty about how these documents were produced.
Our Values
Open source first
The protocol, the node software, the SDK, and the research papers are all public.
Honest uncertainty
We say what is implemented, what is specified, and what is still research. We will not fabricate metrics.
Cooperative economics
The network is designed to distribute value to the people running it, not extract it from them.
Education as infrastructure
Schools are a founding use case, not an afterthought. A learning protocol without schools is useless.
Human-AI symbiosis
The BR1J Constitution establishes this as a foundational governance principle. We guide each other by these institutional values.