Running a Node
Run an OrbMesh Node
The OrbMesh network is built from three classes of nodes: OrbVPN's own datacenter servers, partner datacenters, and community home nodes. Community participation is live today through the Hylon node program, which rewards verified work with points.
Honest rewards: points, not tokens
Community nodes earn points in the Hylon node-program ledger. Points are not ORB tokens, are not bandwidth payments, and have no monetary value today. There is no automatic conversion from points to ORB; if a conversion ever opens it will be a separate, explicitly announced step, disabled by default. Nothing on this page or in the product promises token amounts for running a node.
The three node classes
OrbVPN Datacenter Nodes
The backbone: VPN and DNS servers OrbVPN deploys and operates in professional datacenters. Run by us, not enrollable by users.
Partner Datacenter Nodes
Infrastructure contributed by verified datacenter partners under a commercial agreement, with a partner review and approval process.
Home / Community Nodes
Your spare computer, enrolled through the Hylon node program. Runs verification and benchmark tasks today, earning points for verified work.
What community nodes actually do today
The community node program is in beta. A home node:
- Runs a single binary you download and onboard with a one-time setup code.
- Leases deterministic verification and benchmark tasks from the network and reports results.
- Earns points only for work the server independently re-verifies, so faked results are never rewarded.
Community nodes do not relay VPN traffic and do not serve AI inference yet; those workloads are on the roadmap and will be announced when they are real. Reward-for-bandwidth is not part of the current program.
The full walkthrough (downloads, checksums, setup codes, flags, point rates, troubleshooting) lives in the dedicated guide:
Read the operator guide
Run a Hylon Node covers every step from download to your first verified points.
Get a setup code
Sign in at app.hylon.ai/nodes and click Add node. Codes are single use and expire after 15 minutes.
Run the binary
Paste the printed command on the machine. It onboards once, saves its identity locally, and starts leasing work.
Monitoring
Your enrolled nodes, their online status, tier, points, and truthful contribution counters are visible at app.hylon.ai/nodes and via GET /api/v1/hylon/nodes. Contribution counters only ever report work that actually happened: compute and inference figures stay at zero until those workloads ship.
Partner datacenters
If you operate datacenter infrastructure and want to contribute capacity as a partner (a commercial arrangement, separate from the community points program), contact the team through the support portal.
Put a spare machine to work
Join the node program beta: one binary, one setup code, and honest points for verified work while the network grows toward real compute workloads.