This article will be a continuation of a series about Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) - projects that use blockchain-based token incentives to roll-out decentralized and community-owned infrastructure.
This blog post in particular will cover the Livepeer Protocol (LPT), a decentralized video streaming and processing network that was originally launched on the Ethereum mainnet back in 2018.
By leveraging peer-to-peer infrastructure, the Livepeer network aims to provide a cost-effective, scalable, and secure alternative to centralized video streaming services like YouTube, AWS, and Azure.
Video Transcoding
What is video transcoding?
When you stream content on a Web 2.0 service like YouTube, the videos you watch are available in many different resolutions.
Depending on the capabilities of your device, and how much bandwidth is available to you, the video may be steamed to you in 4k, 1080p, 720p, 420p, etc.
Each video uploaded to YouTube by a user needs to be transcoded into all these different resolutions, resulting in multiple output files (steams). This process is very CPU/GPU intensive.
Centralized vs Decentralized
On a platform like YouTube, video transcoding is done using Google's centrally controlled CPUs and GPUS. The Livepeer network, on the other hand, allows anyone to transcode videos using a decentralized network of CPU/GPUs.
Independent operators are incentivized to lend their processing power to individuals and businesses that need to transcode videos. The operators are rewarded in both ETH and LPT tokens for contributing to the network.
This is similar in concept to other compute networks such as Render, Nosana, and Fluence, although each project has their own particular niche in the DePIN sector.
The LPT Token
LPT is Livepeer's Ethereum-based ERC-20 token, used to incentivize participation, secure the network, and govern its operations.
Livepeer didn't have an initial coin offering (ICO). Instead, it distributed 10,000,000 genesis LPT tokens as follows:
- ~64% airdrop. Approximately 2.6 million Ethereum accounts with at least 0.1 ETH were eligible to claim 2.4 LPT per account
- 19% to pre-sale participants
- 12% to founders and early team members
- 5% for long-term development
In 2022, the LPT token was migrated from Ethereum mainnet to layer-2 Arbitrum to save on gas fees and improve efficiency.
LPT token holders are able to delegate their tokens to transcoders and earn a portion of their ETH rewards, as well as LPT inflationary rewards.
AI and Grayscale Update
Since 2024, Livepeer has emphasized real-time AI video processing, including text-to-image, text-to-video, and image-to-video.
In 2024, Grayscale announced the inclusion of Livepeer's token in their decentralized AI fund, which aims to provide investors with exposure to crypto protocols in the artificial intelligence sector.
Until next time...
For more details on the origins of Livepeer, and how the protocol works, check out this interview with Livepeer founder Doug Petkanics and Fluence co-founder Tom Trowbridge.
If you learned something new from this article, be sure to check out my other posts on crypto and finance here on the Hive blockchain. You can also follow me on InLeo for more frequent updates.