Your school's computers are idle 16 hours a day. That's a fundraising opportunity, imagine had all the schools mined bitcoin or ethereum. We might have better schools with more funds.
Citrate lets schools run what are called validator nodes. These nodes can be run on existing hardware, earning token rewards, and use that income to fund programs that district budgets can't afford. No gimmicks. No privacy or financial risk to students or faculty members. Just compute you own working for your community, when it would otherwise be sitting dark idle.
Schools face three problems we can actually help with.
1. Chronic underfunding
Most public schools depend on budget allocations that have not kept pace with real costs. Arts programs, extracurriculars, and teacher supply budgets are the first things cut. The school fundraising alternatives... candy sales, contests, donation drives... are time-consuming and extract value from students and families rather than generating new value.
A school library with 30 computers running Citrate validator nodes during off-hours can generate $50-200 machine per month in tokens based on compute shared, based on current compute pricing. That is possibly thousands per month from hardware you already own, running work you are already responsible for...group learning activities.
2. Idle, underutilized compute
Schools have significant compute infrastructure in central locations: libraries, labs, administrative offices. Conservative estimates suggest these machines are actively used less than 3 hours per school day. The other 21 hours, that compute sits idle. Schools have more compute across america than the top data centers do. What if they all teamed up to share it with the world.
Citrate nodes are designed to run as background processes with configurable resource limits. They do not interfere with normal computer use during school hours. They run inference and validation work during idle time and pause automatically when a student logs in. The node architecture aims to be privacy by default, allowing a safe place for teachers and students to learn with AI.
3. AI safety and curriculum
The AI tools most students encounter are trained on internet-averaged data with no visibility into what shaped them. Schools have no control over what these models say or how they behave. For teachers trying to use AI as a learning tool, this is a real liability.
Citrate's federated learning architecture lets schools run local models trained on their own curriculum. A teacher can train a model on third-grade reading materials and use it as a classroom tool with confidence about what it knows and what it does not. The model weights stay on the school's hardware. No data leaves unless the school chooses to participate in the broader network.
Three steps to a running node.
Download the Citrate node software. It runs on any modern computer with a standard operating system. Installation takes about 20 minutes following the quickstart guide.
Configure your school's resource limits. The node config file lets you set maximum CPU and memory usage, schedule active hours, and choose whether to participate in local-only mode or the full network.
Register your school's node address with the Foundation. This links your nodes to the school's reward wallet, makes you eligible for education-track grants, and connects you to the school network governance channel.
Real numbers. Testnet parameters.
Node operators earn SALT tokens for participating in consensus, serving inference requests, and contributing model updates to the network. SALT is the native gas token of the Citrate network with a total supply of 1,000,000,000 tokens.
The current testnet validator reward rate is calibrated to target $200+ per active node per month at projected mainnet token prices. Schools with larger computer labs... 50 to 100 machines... are looking at $10,000 to $20,000 per month in passive computing income.
Note: Reward rates are testnet parameters subject to change before mainnet. Final rates will be published in the mainnet tokenomics paper before launch.
Local AI your teachers actually control.
Every Citrate node includes the MCP model runtime. Schools can download open-source models from the network marketplace and run them locally on classroom hardware. These models can be fine-tuned on school-provided curriculum data using the same LoRA adaptation protocol the network uses for cooperative learning.
A middle school science teacher can take a base model, fine-tune it on their course materials over a weekend, and give students access to a tutor that knows exactly what they are studying. The tutor runs locally. No internet connection required during class. No data leaving the building.
Building the infrastructure schools deserve.
I wrote the original vision for Citrate's school collaboration, after years of thinking about how distributed computing and education could actually help each other. My mother worked in school accounting for 30 years as head of accounts payable. I grew up watching her stress over tight budgets and outdated computers. I have a daughter in elementary school. I watched schools beg families for candy money while computers sat dark in the library.
The internet reached schools first, before most homes, because schools already had the physical infrastructure to run a network. Computers in central locations. Dedicated power. IT staff. When CERN seeded the early web, schools were among the first institutions that could actually receive it.
I think about Citrate the same way. Schools are among the best-positioned institutions to run distributed infrastructure. They have the hardware, the physical footprint, and the long-term stability that makes good node operators. In return, the network gives them income, computing tools, and a stake in something that matters.
My goal is one million nodes built from school and community computer labs. Not because it sounds good... because the math works and creates real altruism. One million nodes at modest hardware specs gives Citrate the throughput and geographic distribution of a world-class network. An institution with working compute income changes what public education can afford. Imagine if your local school had 100 bitcoin from mining... Same concept, but bitcoin was focused on money. Citrate is focused on learning together.
This is not charity. My goal has been to build cooperative infrastructure. Schools bring compute, The network pays them for it fairly. Everyone benefits.
... Larry Klosowski, Founder, Citrate Network