Processing nodes in a distributed ad-hoc computing environment are discovered, wherein each processing node is configured to discover other processing nodes. A set of candidate processing nodes is selected from the discovered processing nodes. Selection is based on each discovered processing node advertising its own capabilities to other processing nodes, and processing nodes are selected as candidates based on their advertised capabilities. A subset of processing nodes is formed from the set of candidate processing nodes. The subset of processing nodes forms a self-organized task coordination ensemble wherein each processing node in the task coordination ensemble executes the same consensus protocol. By way of example, the distributed ad-hoc computing environment comprises an IoT network and the processing nodes are IoT devices.