Key Achievements
- Doug Petkanics and Eric Tang found Livepeer
- Mission: decentralize the hardest layer of video infrastructure: transcoding - using crypto-economic incentives.
Livepeer Whitepaper
- Livepeer protocol launches on Ethereum.
- First decentralized marketplace for video transcoding goes live.
Mainnet Launch
- Network proves it can deliver lower-cost, reliable transcoding at scale.
- Orchestrator + delegator model stabilizes supply and quality.
Architecture & Incentives
- Major platforms and apps use Livepeer for production workloads.
- Livepeer Inc. productizes access (APIs) while the network keeps running permissionlessly.
Real Adoption
- Livepeer doubles down on video-native infra, resisting the “generic GPU cloud” path.
- Early exploration of video + ML workloads.
Video + ML
- Livepeer introduces AI-first gateways, combining video & AI workloads.
- First real-time AI video pipelines demonstrated on the network.
- Founders outline a vision for AI-first infrastructure.
AI-first Gateways
- Public articulation of Livepeer’s shift to real-time AI video infrastructure (“Cascade”).
- Orchestrators upgrade hardware; inference becomes a first-class workload.
Cascade Vision: AI Video Compute
- Livepeer Foundation launched to steward the network’s long-term growth.
- First Special Purpose Entities (SPEs) formed: AI SPE, Cloud SPE.
- Daydream launches (real-time AI video creation).
- ComfyStream / ComfyUI integration enables visual, real-time AI workflows.
- Majority of network fees now driven by AI inference, not just transcoding.
Livepeer Foundation
- Livepeer recognized as the open, real-time AI layer for video.
- Differentiation is clear: low-latency streaming + AI inference at scale, powered by a decentralized GPU network.
Livepeer Roadmap
Livepeer Development Stages
- Proposed in LIP-1 and went live in April 2018.
- Marked the launch of Livepeer Alpha on Ethereum mainnet.
- The first functional version of the network-enabled basic video broadcasting and the generation of LPT rewards from an initial total token supply of 10 million LPT at Genesis.
- Propsed in LIP-10 and went live in August 2018.
- Enabled developers to build on Livepeer’s video infrastructure and addressed major pain points identified in the protocol’s first iteration.
- Proposed in May 2019 in LIP-30 and went live in January 2020.
- Expanded the network’s node capacity from 25 to 100, introduced the “Transcoder” role, splitting the original orchestrator role to drive network efficiency and performance.
- This upgrade also introduced Probabilistic Micropayments and offchain job negotiations.
- Initially proposed in September 2021 in LIP-80 and went live in February 2022.
- This upgrade deployed Livepeer on Arbitrum, moving the protocol’s functionalities to the Layer-2 network.
- This significantly reduced the protocol’s gas fees and offered faster transactions to network participants.
- Proposed in April 2023, Livepeer Delta went live in October 2023 following the passing of LIP-91.
- This upgrade deployed a community-governed onchain treasury for the protocol Livepeer.
- It also introduced new parameters to Livepeer’s staking contract that routes a portion of LPT’s inflationary emissions to the treasury, which is used to fund Public goods.