Paygress

Pay-per-use compute with Lightning + Nostr. No accounts, no signups.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/627d2bb1-1a9b-4e66-bc42-7c91a1804fe1

Paygress is a marketplace where anyone can buy or sell compute resources using Cashu ecash tokens. Providers advertise on Nostr, consumers discover and pay - all anonymous, all instant.

What you can do

In plain English, what Paygress lets a user do today:

• Rent a Linux container by the second. Hand it a prepaid voucher, get a container running on someone else's machine. No signup, no credit card, no email. The container shuts down when the voucher runs out; extend the lease anytime by handing over another voucher.
• Pick from five ready-made boxes. Generic Python + Node sandbox (with a built-in HTTP exec endpoint — run code without SSH); AI inference endpoint (Ollama, OpenAI-compatible API); Nostr relay; disposable headless Chrome; Bitcoin node.
• Run code inside the sandbox without SSH. The agent-sandbox template ships with a bundled HTTP exec server. POST a command, get back stdout/stderr/exit code. Same credentials as SSH, no extra setup.
• Run many containers in parallel. One command spawns N containers, splits a single voucher N ways automatically, hands you a JSON manifest with each one's address. Built for batch jobs (render farms, ML batch inference), CI matrices (one runner per OS/version), and map-reduce workloads.
• Long-running services with automatic failover. Pay 3 hosts at once (one primary, two standbys). The primary runs the actual container and pings the network every minute. If it stops pinging — machine crashed, network died — the first standby takes over within ~30 seconds, becomes the new primary. (V1 caveat: best-effort single-writer for ~30s during failover; ideal for relays / stateless services, see PR #43 for the full story.)
• Let AI assistants do all this for you. A built-in MCP server plugs into Claude Desktop, Cursor, Cline, Claude Code with one config block. The assistant gets six tools: discover providers, spawn a sandbox, fan out N spawns, monitor a lease, extend a lease, and run code inside the sandbox. So Claude can say "let me run that for you" and within seconds has actually executed your code in a sandbox it paid for itself.
• Become a host yourself. Run the provider command on a Linux box you own and start renting compute to anyone with vouchers. Heartbeats publish your availability; consumers find you through discovery. You earn vouchers per second of compute served.

Prerequisites

Install Rust via rustup:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

Install required system libraries (Ubuntu/Debian):

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y pkg-config libssl-dev

Install

cargo install paygress-cli

For Consumers

1. Find a provider

# Browse all providers on Nostr
paygress-cli list

# Filter and sort
paygress-cli list --online-only --sort price

# Get details on a specific provider
paygress-cli list info <PROVIDER_NPUB>

2. Spawn a workload

Get a Cashu token from a wallet like Nutstash or Minibits, then:

paygress-cli spawn \
  --provider <PROVIDER_NPUB> \
  --tier basic \
  --token "cashuA..."

SSH credentials are auto-generated and displayed after provisioning. You can also set them explicitly with --ssh-user and --ssh-pass.

The CLI auto-generates a Nostr identity at ~/.paygress/identity on first use.

3. Connect

ssh -p <PORT> root@<PROVIDER_IP>

4. Check status

paygress-cli status --pod-id <ID> --provider <NPUB>

HTTP Mode

For centralized deployments (Kubernetes + Nginx L402 paywall), pass --server instead of --provider:

paygress-cli list --server http://my-server:8080
paygress-cli spawn --server http://my-server:8080 --tier basic --token "cashuA..."
paygress-cli status --server http://my-server:8080 --pod-id <ID>

For Providers

Quick Start: One-Click Bootstrap

Set up any Linux VPS as a provider with a single command:

# With SSH password (requires sshpass: apt install sshpass / brew install hudochenkov/sshpass/sshpass)
paygress-cli bootstrap \
  --host <YOUR_SERVER_IP> \
  --user root \
  --password "your-ssh-password" \
  --name "My Node" \
  --mints "https://testnut.cashu.space"

# With SSH key (no extra dependencies)
paygress-cli bootstrap \
  --host <YOUR_SERVER_IP> \
  --user root \
  --key ~/.ssh/id_rsa \
  --name "My Node" \
  --mints "https://testnut.cashu.space"

This will SSH into your server, install LXD (on Ubuntu) or Proxmox (on Debian), compile Paygress, configure a systemd service, and start broadcasting offers to Nostr.

Requirements: Linux with systemd, root/sudo access. Public IP recommended (or use WireGuard tunnel below).

Manual Setup

# 1. Setup (generates config at provider-config.json)
paygress-cli provider setup \
  --proxmox-url https://127.0.0.1:8006/api2/json \
  --token-id "root@pam!paygress" \
  --token-secret "<SECRET>" \
  --name "My Provider" \
  --mints "https://testnut.cashu.space"

# 2. Start
paygress-cli provider start --config provider-config.json

# 3. Check status
paygress-cli provider status

Provider Management

# Stop the service
paygress-cli provider stop

# View live logs
journalctl -u paygress-provider -f

# Reset (remove all Paygress data from a server)
paygress-cli system reset --host <IP> --user root

Running Behind NAT (No Public IP)

If your machine doesn't have a public IP (e.g., home server behind a router), use a WireGuard VPN tunnel to get one:

# Install WireGuard (Ubuntu/Debian)
sudo apt install wireguard wireguard-tools

# Pay for a VPN tunnel with a Cashu token
paygress-cli provider tunnel \
  --vpn-url https://vpn.cashu.icu \
  --token "cashuA..."

This installs WireGuard (if needed), downloads a VPN config, starts the tunnel, and updates your provider config with the public IP and port range. Restart the provider service after:

systemctl restart paygress-provider

Your provider is now reachable through the VPN tunnel. Consumers SSH to the tunnel's public IP.

Supported Backends

Architecture

Decentralized (Nostr + LXD/Proxmox): Provider publishes offers (Kind 38383) and heartbeats (Kind 38384) to Nostr relays. Consumer sends encrypted spawn request with Cashu token. Provider verifies payment, creates container, returns SSH credentials - all via encrypted Nostr DMs.

Centralized (Kubernetes): Nginx with ngx_l402 validates Cashu tokens. Paygress provisions K8s pods with SSH access. Clients interact via HTTP API.