| Idea #1 — HearthNet |
| Imagine the internet connection in your neighborhood goes down. |
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| No ChatGPT. No cloud AI. No marketplace. No messaging. No shared knowledge. |
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| HearthNet is a local-first AI mesh network that turns existing devices into a community AI cooperative. Gaming PCs, old laptops, Raspberry Pis — every node contributes capabilities. |
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| The system automatically discovers nearby nodes and routes requests to the best available machine. One node might run LLM inference, another store documents, another host vector indexes or relay messages. |
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| When the internet is available, HearthNet federates with cloud services. When it isn't, the network continues operating locally. |
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| For the hackathon, I'd like to demonstrate: |
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| Multiple real nodes working together |
| LLM request routing |
| Local RAG over emergency/community documents |
| Local chat and marketplace |
| Live WAN failover by unplugging the internet connection |
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| Long-term vision: resilient community-owned AI infrastructure. |
