Informal deals can work for a one-off. They usually do not record agreed hours, price, hardware checks, or what happens if the seller drops offline. IdleChip keeps the listing, reply, session start, and stop on one thread so terms and status stay in one place.

Cloud marketplaces often lease whole machines by the day or month. IdleChip is for shorter runs: a few hours on a named GPU class from an owner renting idle time between their own work. You match to a scanned card on someone's PC, not a datacenter instance type.

The website controls My GPUs, posts, and sessions. The scan runs on the PC that has the GPU (nvidia-smi), not in the browser. On localhost, site and verifier share one machine. On the live site, keep the GPU verifier running on your PC; the page sends commands and the verifier reports stats back.

The seller runs the GPU verifier. It registers the card and keeps watch running while listed. Available status and model data come from the verifier, not a text field on the post.

No. Buyer and seller set hours and rate on the post. During a session, billing follows delivered time. Funds use on-chain escrow; IdleChip tracks sessions and attestations. We are not a custodial wallet holding your balance in our database.

Yes. IdleChip rents metered GPU-hours, not a fixed framework. The host lists how you reach the machine (SSH, Docker, Jupyter, or other notes). After escrow funds, you connect and run your own workload. The host runs idlechip-verifier watch so delivered time is recorded on-chain.

If the verifier stops reporting, the session pauses. You can fail over to another listing with a matching GPU for the hours you still have booked. You move your workload to the new host yourself.

Many jobs are a training run, render, or experiment, not a month-long lease. Hourly booking fits short renter jobs and hosts who only have spare capacity between their own work.

When the public hour pool on a post is full, unused hours may still sit on another buyer's join reply. You can request a transfer at a premium; the listing owner approves or rejects. Compute still comes from the same seller GPU under that post's rules.

Yes. That is a common homelab setup. Keep the GPU verifier running on the PC with the GPU (home server, remote desktop, or workstation that stays on anyway). Rent out only spare GPU-hours you are not using yourself. Open the site from your phone or laptop to manage listings and sessions; scans and availability still come from the machine with the card. See the Homelab GPU rental article for setup tips.

No. You can browse the feed and read posts without signing in. Create an account to post, reply, or start a session.