What is Livepeer (LPT)?
Every live streaming platform faces the same heavy task: converting a single video source into multiple formats that fit different screens and connection speeds. Livepeer (LPT) is an open-source protocol that distributes this work across a global network of independent computers instead of relying on expensive server farms. Running on Ethereum, it aims to make live and on-demand video infrastructure cheaper and more open.
What role does the LPT token play?
LPT is the protocol's native ERC-20 token, but it is not the currency used to pay for video jobs. Broadcasters and developers pay for transcoding and AI services in ETH or stablecoins. LPT serves a different purpose: it is the staking asset that secures the network and assigns work rights.
Node operators called orchestrators must stake LPT to be eligible for work. The more LPT an orchestrator holds or attracts from delegators, the more jobs it can claim and the larger its share of network rewards. Token holders who delegate LPT to an orchestrator earn a portion of the ETH fees and newly minted LPT that the node collects. LPT also gives its holders voting power over protocol upgrades and parameter changes, making it the governance backbone of the network.
How does the Livepeer network process work?
The protocol keeps coordination and payments on-chain, but the heavy lifting—video transcoding and AI inference—happens off-chain among orchestrator nodes. When a broadcaster submits a job, orchestrators compete to take it. The winning node processes the video and receives a probabilistic payment ticket that can be redeemed on-chain for ETH. This design keeps the Ethereum chain unclogged while the actual compute work runs at scale.
Livepeer has recently expanded beyond video transcoding into AI inference tasks, such as turning text into images or video, using the same distributed GPU network and incentive structure. Founded by Doug Petkanics and Eric Tang in 2017, the project launched its mainnet in 2018. The initial LPT supply was distributed through a public MerkleMine mechanism with no ICO, giving a wide range of participants early access to the token.
