Deploy a local testnet

Running a local Livepeer stack lets you develop against real protocol contracts without spending ETH or affecting mainnet state. The protocol repo ships a Hardhat deploy script that deploys every contract automatically, seeds the faucet with test LPT, and writes a deployments JSON you can point go-livepeer at.

This guide covers local Hardhat deployment only. For Arbitrum Sepolia testnet deployment the same deploy script applies — swap the Hardhat network target for arbitrumSepolia and provide a funded Sepolia wallet.

Prerequisites

You need the following installed before starting:

Node.js v18 or later and yarn
Go 1.21 or later (for building go-livepeer)
git
An Ethereum wallet with a private key (for Hardhat, the default accounts are pre-funded — no setup needed)

Deploy the protocol contracts

Clone the protocol repo

git clone https://github.com/livepeer/protocol.git
cd protocol
git checkout delta

Install dependencies

yarn install

Compile the contracts

yarn compile

This compiles all Solidity contracts in contracts/ using the compiler version specified in hardhat.config.ts. Output goes to artifacts/.

Start a local Hardhat node

Open a separate terminal and leave this running for the duration of your development session.

yarn hardhat node

Hardhat starts a local JSON-RPC node at http://127.0.0.1:8545 with chain ID 31337. It pre-funds 20 accounts with 10,000 ETH each and prints their private keys to stdout.

Deploy all contracts

In your original terminal, run the deploy script against the local node:

yarn hardhat deploy --network gethDev

The gethDev network config (from deploy/migrations.config.ts) sets short round lengths and unlock periods suitable for local testing:

Parameter	Value
`roundLength`	50 blocks
`unbondingPeriod`	7 rounds
`unlockPeriod`	50 blocks
`faucet.requestAmount`	10 LPT
`faucet.requestWait`	1 hour

On completion, contract addresses are written to deployments/gethDev/. The deployer account is set as Controller owner and Governor owner. The faucet is seeded with 6,343,700 LPT (genesis.crowdSupply) and the deployer receives 500,000 LPT (genesis.companySupply).

Note the Controller address

Every contract address is resolvable from the Controller. Find it in the deployment output:

cat deployments/gethDev/Controller.json | grep '"address"'

You will need this address to configure go-livepeer in the next section.

What gets deployed

The deploy script (deploy/deploy_contracts.ts) deploys and registers the following contracts automatically. All proxy contracts are registered in the Controller.

Contract	Notes
Controller	Central registry. Owner set to Governor after deployment.
Minter	Inflation schedule. Granted MINTER_ROLE on LivepeerToken.
LivepeerToken	ERC-20. Deployed fresh for non-Arbitrum networks.
LivepeerTokenFaucet	Test LPT distribution. Seeded with `crowdSupply`.
TicketBroker	Proxy + target. Also registered as `JobsManager` for legacy Minter compatibility.
BondingManager	Proxy + target. Linked with SortedDoublyLL library.
BondingVotes	Proxy + target. Checkpoint store for governance voting power.
RoundsManager	Deployed as `AdjustableRoundsManager` on non-live networks, allowing round length to be changed programmatically in tests.
ServiceRegistry	Proxy + target.
MerkleSnapshot	Registered in Controller.
Governor	Ownership transferred to deployer account (or governance multisig on mainnet).
Treasury	OpenZeppelin TimelockController.
LivepeerGovernor	Proxy + target. Initialised with voting parameters from `migrations.config.ts`.

LivepeerTokenFaucet is the only contract that is skipped on production networks (mainnet, arbitrumMainnet). The deploy script gates it with if (!isProdNetwork(hre.network.name)).

Connect go-livepeer to your local contracts

With contracts deployed, you can run go-livepeer nodes against your local stack.

Build go-livepeer

git clone https://github.com/livepeer/go-livepeer.git
cd go-livepeer
make

The binary is built to ./livepeer.

Get the Controller address

From your protocol repo:

cat deployments/gethDev/Controller.json | grep '"address"'
# "address": "0x5FbDB2315678afecb367f032d93F642f64180aa3"

Start an orchestrator node

Replace <CONTROLLER_ADDRESS> with the address from the previous step and <KEYSTORE_PATH> with a path to an Ethereum keystore file (you can export one of the Hardhat accounts).

./livepeer \
  -network offchain \
  -ethUrl http://127.0.0.1:8545 \
  -ethController <CONTROLLER_ADDRESS> \
  -ethKeystorePath <KEYSTORE_PATH> \
  -ethPassword "" \
  -orchestrator \
  -transcoder \
  -serviceAddr 127.0.0.1:8935 \
  -pricePerUnit 0 \
  -initializeRound

The key flags for local contract targeting:

Flag	Purpose
`-network offchain`	Disables built-in network configs so `-ethController` is used directly
`-ethUrl`	JSON-RPC endpoint of your local Hardhat node
`-ethController`	Address of the Controller contract from your deployment
`-initializeRound`	Automatically initialises a new round when needed; essential for local testing

Start a gateway node

In a separate terminal, using a different keystore account:

./livepeer \
  -network offchain \
  -ethUrl http://127.0.0.1:8545 \
  -ethController <CONTROLLER_ADDRESS> \
  -ethKeystorePath <GATEWAY_KEYSTORE_PATH> \
  -ethPassword "" \
  -gateway \
  -orchAddr 127.0.0.1:8935 \
  -maxPricePerUnit 0

Using -orchAddr directly bypasses the ServiceRegistry lookup and connects the gateway to your local orchestrator immediately.

Request test LPT from the faucet

The faucet address is in deployments/gethDev/LivepeerTokenFaucet.json. Call request() directly using cast or the go-livepeer CLI:

cast send <FAUCET_ADDRESS> "request()" \
  --rpc-url http://127.0.0.1:8545 \
  --private-key <PRIVATE_KEY>

Each call transfers 10 LPT to the caller. The rate limit is 1 hour between requests, but whitelisted addresses bypass it entirely. Add your test addresses to the whitelist by calling addToWhitelist(address) from the deployer account.

Bond LPT and activate an orchestrator

With test LPT in your orchestrator wallet, bond and register:

# Approve BondingManager to spend LPT
cast send <LPT_ADDRESS> \
  "approve(address,uint256)" <BONDING_MANAGER_ADDRESS> 1000000000000000000000 \
  --rpc-url http://127.0.0.1:8545 \
  --private-key <PRIVATE_KEY>

# Bond 1000 LPT to yourself (self-delegation = orchestrator registration)
cast send <BONDING_MANAGER_ADDRESS> \
  "bond(uint256,address)" 1000000000000000000000 <YOUR_ADDRESS> \
  --rpc-url http://127.0.0.1:8545 \
  --private-key <PRIVATE_KEY>

After the next round initialises (triggered automatically by -initializeRound on your orchestrator node), your orchestrator enters the active set and can call reward().

Deploying to Arbitrum Sepolia

The same deploy script targets Arbitrum Sepolia with a different network name. You need a funded Sepolia wallet (Sepolia ETH from a faucet) and an Arbitrum Sepolia RPC URL.

# Set your deployer private key
export PRIVATE_KEY=0x...

# Deploy to Arbitrum Sepolia
yarn hardhat deploy --network arbitrumSepolia

Add an arbitrumSepolia entry to hardhat.config.ts pointing at your RPC URL, then use the defaultConfig from migrations.config.ts as your parameter baseline. The faucet deploys and is seeded the same as local — crowdSupply worth of test LPT.

arbitrumSepolia is not a named network in migrations.config.ts as of the current delta branch. It falls through to defaultConfig, which has sensible testnet defaults. Confirm roundLength: 5760 is acceptable for your testing cadence before deploying.

Blockchain Contracts

Full technical reference for every protocol contract: purpose, key functions, and source code.

Contract Addresses

Current and historical mainnet contract addresses across Arbitrum One and Ethereum Mainnet.

Protocol repo on GitHub

Source code, deploy scripts, and migration configs for the Livepeer protocol.

go-livepeer on GitHub

Node implementation. Build from source or use pre-built binaries.

Start Here

Concepts

Get Started

Custom AI Workflows

Guides

Resources

Prerequisites

Deploy the protocol contracts

What gets deployed

Connect go-livepeer to your local contracts

Deploying to Arbitrum Sepolia

Blockchain Contracts

Contract Addresses

Protocol repo on GitHub

go-livepeer on GitHub

Start Here

Concepts

Get Started

Custom AI Workflows

Guides

Resources

​Prerequisites

​Deploy the protocol contracts

​What gets deployed

​Connect go-livepeer to your local contracts

​Deploying to Arbitrum Sepolia

​Related pages

Blockchain Contracts

Contract Addresses

Protocol repo on GitHub

go-livepeer on GitHub

Prerequisites

Deploy the protocol contracts

What gets deployed

Connect go-livepeer to your local contracts

Deploying to Arbitrum Sepolia

Related pages