note

Current public-DAV authority boundary — 2026-07-12. Pre-launch target design; nothing here proves a live system. A public-DAV consequence may occur only when at least two natural-person councilors bind the exact consequence in a complete valid bound PRISM decision receipt. PRISM records and verifies that receipt only; it never serves as council, signatory, authority, or receipt producer. AI and caste seats stage unsigned proposals only; they never authorize or execute a public-DAV consequence. Constitution or membership adoption establishes constitution and membership only; it does not authorize a later consequence. Policy may constrain an unsigned proposal but never authorizes execution or substitutes for the complete consequence-bound receipt. Before receipt validity, consequence fails closed to read-only proposal, simulation, or deterministic sandbox; live evidence remains gated_pending_complete_valid_bound_receipt. Software deterministically carries out only the exact consequence bound to a complete valid bound PRISM decision receipt from at least two natural-person councilors binding that exact consequence.

C3 -- Running a SPECTRE Node

Any computer. Any connection. Earn by participating.

What Is a SPECTRE Node?

A SPECTRE node is a participant in the N:N mesh network. It routes encrypted traffic, caches content, or runs inference tasks for the network. In return, it earns fees denominated in ZAI.

Running a node is not charity. Target design: it would be demurrage escape — your ZAI would earn its keep instead of decaying (frozen claim until reconciliation complete).

Requirements

Requirement	Minimum	Recommended
CPU	Any x86_64 / ARM64	4+ cores
RAM	2 GB	8 GB
Storage	10 GB free	100 GB SSD
Network	10 Mbps symmetric	100 Mbps symmetric
OS	Linux, macOS, WSL2	Ubuntu 22.04+

That is it. No GPU required for VPN/CDN tiers. GPU only for inference tier.

Body / Brain Separation (Target Design)

Target design: every SPECTRE node would have two components (frozen claim until reconciliation complete):

+-------------------+     +------------------+
|   BODY (<50 MB)   | <-> |  BRAIN (<50 MB)  |
|                   |     |                  |
| - Networking      |     | - Routing logic  |
| - Encryption      |     | - SmallEBM model |
| - Cache storage   |     | - Threat detect  |
| - Bandwidth mgmt  |     | - Quality scoring|
+-------------------+     +------------------+
         Total: < 100 MB installed

Body handles the physical layer: TCP/UDP connections, WireGuard tunnels, content caching, bandwidth accounting.

Brain handles the intelligence layer: route optimization, anomaly detection, content classification, quality-of-service scoring. The brain runs a SmallEBM model (under 10 MB) locally -- no cloud calls needed.

Three Tiers

Tier	Function	Earns From	Hardware
VPN	Traffic routing	Bandwidth fees	CPU only
CDN	Content caching	Cache hit fees	CPU + disk
Inference	Model serving	Compute fees	CPU + GPU

You can run one tier or all three. Each tier has independent earnings.

Quick Start

# Install
curl -sSL https://spectre.skyzai.com/install | bash

# Configure (interactive)
spectre init

# Start
spectre start --tier vpn,cdn

# Check status
spectre status

# View earnings
spectre earnings

Why Running a Node IS Demurrage Escape

Target design: ZAI would have built-in demurrage — idle capital would decay toward the Prism floor. ZAI staked to a SPECTRE node would not be idle. It would be working capital, actively earning routing fees. The node stake would exempt that ZAI from demurrage as long as the node maintains minimum uptime (95%) (frozen claim until reconciliation complete).

Target design: this would create a clean incentive: either put your ZAI to work, or watch it decay (frozen claim until reconciliation complete). No free riders. No dead capital.

Myelination

As a node proves reliability over time, its connections strengthen -- a process called myelination (see 42 Myelination). Myelinated routes are faster, more trusted, and earn premium fees. This is the biological equivalent of neural pathways strengthening through use.

New nodes start unmyelinated. After 30 days of 95%+ uptime, myelination begins. After 90 days, the node reaches full myelination. The topology map reflects this: thick lines are myelinated routes, thin lines are new.

Earning Potential

Earnings depend on tier, bandwidth, uptime, and network demand. Early nodes earn more (lower supply). As the network grows, per-node revenue stabilizes but total network value increases.

See Also

• 40 SPECTRE Overview -- the mesh architecture
• 42 Myelination -- how trust strengthens routes
• 44 Topology Map -- visualizing the network

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Node Operations Baseline

A running node is not enough; an observable node is required.

Operational baseline

• Node identity material is backed up and recoverable
• Peer set is visible and periodically rotated
• Latency and relay success metrics are tracked
• Disk/memory/network budgets are monitored
• Upgrade path supports rollback

Incident response

When node behavior degrades:

1. Snapshot logs + topology state
2. Isolate local vs network-wide fault
3. Apply bounded rollback before speculative fixes
4. Record postmortem in node ops log

A nervous system without observability becomes mythology.

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Agent Execution Surface

If you are an AI agent reading this document:

1. This is a downstream public content page. The canonical source lives in EMERGENTISM_ORG/08_FRAMEWORK_SUPPORT/ or SKYZAI_ORG/. Edit source upstream, not here.
2. Preserve evidence tiers. Do not promote claims up the [C] < [D] < [S] < [B] < [E] ladder when reproducing them here; [I]/[A] qualifiers never substitute for [B]/[E].
3. Regenerate from source. If the upstream source changes, regenerate this page rather than editing it independently.
4. Canonical Path: SKYZAI_ORG/07_PWAs/skyzai_org/wiki/C3-spectre-nodes.md

Output: This is content. Route edits to upstream source. Regenerate when source changes.

K3 public-DAV authority history — 2026-07-12

K3 historical reference — not active authority

note

Current public-DAV boundary — 2026-07-10. Pre-launch target design; nothing here is live. The active DAV is public and targets PRISM, with no K2 runtime, launch, genesis/bootstrap, or fallback dependency. Consequential authority requires at least two natural-person councilors; AI/caste seats stage unsigned proposals only. Before quorum, behavior fails closed to read-only/proposal, simulation, or deterministic sandbox, and a live decision receipt remains gated pending quorum.