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Livepeer Values

Livepeer has also been driven by a set of core values that guide its development, operations, and community interactions.
  • Innovation: Embrace new ideas and technologies to stay ahead of the curve.
  • Collaboration: Build with and for the community, fostering open dialogue and shared ownership.
  • Accessibility: Make cutting-edge video and AI tools available to everyone, regardless of technical background.
  • Community: Build with and for the community, fostering open dialogue and shared ownership.
With this in mind, Livepeer is dedicated not just to open, accessible architecture but also to a contributive organisational structure that optimises for the right people, with the right incentives, working on the right things.

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Entities

Livepeer’s project structure has evolved to balance a focused core team with a growing community governance model. Several entities play distinct roles in Livepeer’s ecosystem:

Livepeer Inc.

Livepeer Inc is the original company behind the Livepeer protocol. Livepeer Inc built the core network infrastructure and continues to drive product development and demand generation.

Livepeer Foundation

The Livepeer Foundation is a non-profit organisation that stewards the long-term vision, ecosystem growth, and core development of the Livepeer network.

Livepeer DAO

The Livepeer DAO is an unofficial term for the collective of LP tokenholders who decide on the direction of the network via on-chain proposals and an on-chain treasury.

Special Purpose Entities (SPEs)

Special Purpose Entities (SPEs) are mission-driven engineering or operational teams funded by the Livepeer ecosystem to deliver the DAO’s accepted proposals.
This section describes each and how they interrelate, including ownership of key products like Livepeer Studio and Daydream, strategic focuses, and insights from team members on their collaboration.

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Livepeer Inc.

Livepeer Inc is the original founding company behind the Livepeer protocol. Livepeer Inc built the core network infrastructure and continues to drive product development. Livepeer Inc’s current focus is product-market fit (PMF) for the Livepeer network in the era of real-time AI video.
Strategic Focus:
  • Livepeer Inc is laser-focused on demand generation and utility for the network, particularly in the AI video domain. Doug Petkanics (CEO) outlined that Inc’s core thesis is proving that builders will use Livepeer for AI-powered video applications because it’s the best option.
“The team is focused, funded, and running hard at the next major milestone: unlocking product-market fit… as the leading infrastructure for realtime AI video.”
-Doug Petkanics
Role in Ecosystem:
  • Livepeer Inc acts as a pioneer and catalyst. By running a focused product strategy, Inc provides “proof of utility” for the network.
  • Livepeer Inc. focuses on developing cutting-edge video products and core software to drive growth.
“Livepeer Inc’s work is critical… by building products that generate real demand for the network, Inc provides proof of utility, inspiration, and compounding network effects (more demand → more usage → more infrastructure → more contributors)”
- Livepeer Inc. team
Products:

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Livepeer Foundation

Launched in mid-2025, the Livepeer Foundation (LF) is a non-profit entity created to “to steward the long-term vision, ecosystem growth, and core development of the network” complementing the work of Livepeer Inc.

“The LF’s role is to ensure that, over time, the Livepeer project builds a thriving ecosystem of founders, applications and gateways, and a highly-performant, secure network, truly accountable and governed by token holders.”

The Livepeer Foundation is a strategic coordinator within the Livepeer ecosystem, and makes decisions in the following areas:
  • Define strategic objectives for Livepeer
  • Design initiatives to accelerate or steer progress towards objectives
  • Drawing on available resources, recruit and coordinate task forces to execute on initiatives

Leadership & Stewardship:
  • The Livepeer Foundation - led by Rich O’Grady, is owned and governed by its members, who have the ability to vote on proposals and make decisions about the direction of the organisation.
  • Strategy is shaped through multi-stakeholder Advisory Boards (network operators, builders, community members, Inc., and domain experts) across Protocol, Network, Governance, and Markets/Demand.
  • The Foundation synthesizes this input into a long-term roadmap, budget, and defined workstreams, which are proposed to the community for approval.
  • Livepeer stakeholders (tokenholders, node operators, developers, and community members) vote on budgets, programs, and the Foundation’s board.
  • The Foundation then coordinates and executes on the approved strategy and workstreams with transparent, regular reporting back to its members.
You can join in the conversation on the Livepeer Forum or weekly Watercooler Chats
Advisory Boards:
  • Advisory Boards are small, domain-specific groups consisting of Livepeer core contributors, representing different parts of the Livepeer ecosystem.
  • Advisory Boards are formed every 6 months to build and update a coherent roadmap for the Livepeer project in conjunction with the broader community.
  • Advisory Boards do not make capital allocation decisions themselves. Token Holders still have to vote on each SPE when the team has been formed and the proposal has been submitted onchain.
Advisory Board Focus Areas:
Advisory Boards are focused on four key areas of the Livepeer project:
  • Protocol
  • Network
  • Governance
  • Demand & Markets
Workstreams:
  • Workstreams are the day-to-day activities that the Foundation is responsible for.
  • The Foundation has a number of workstreams that are currently being executed, including:
    • Onboarding
    • Growth
    • Developer Experience
    • Treasury
    • Operations
Role in Ecosystem:
  • The Foundation is responsible for the long-term health and decentralization of the Livepeer network.
  • The Foundation communitcates closely with the Livepeer DAO for its initiatives to ensure it has its members’ trust and support.
  • Funds and coordinates the work of Special Purpose Entities (SPEs) - focused teams delivering long-term infrastructure, open-source software, and public goods.
  • The Foundation is a critical partner in driving the long-term success of the Livepeer network.
Further ReadingLivepeer Foundation Role- Andrew Macpherson Research Report

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Livepeer DAO

While not officially called the Livepeer DAO, the Livepeer protocol is governed by a collective of Livpeer (LP) tokenholders who decide on the direction of the network via on-chain proposals and an on-chain treasury. As Rich O’Grady, Livepeer Foundation Lead, explains:
“The Livepeer community is the DAO. The Foundation is a critical partner in driving the long-term success of the Livepeer network, but it is the community that holds the final say in all matters via on-chain governance.”
DAO members are collectively the ultimate decision-makers of protocol upgrades, network growth proposals and treasury allocations. Anyone who holds (and has delegated) Livepeer tokens (LPT) is a member of the Livepeer DAO and can participate in voting & governance.
Even if you are not a tokenholder (or do not have a non-zero delegated stake), you can still participate in the Livepeer ecosystem by joining the community and influencing the direction of the network indirectly through discussions and collaboration.

Role in Ecosystem
  • The Livepeer DAO members are the ultimate decision-makers on all matters related to funding, protocol changes and ultimate product direction of the Livepeer network.
  • While Livepeer Inc. and the Livepeer Foundation may self-fund their own projects, all protocol and network changes require approval by the DAO.
  • The DAO votes on whether to fund Foundation Roadmap items, SPEs, Request for Proposals (RFPs), and protocol upgrades in Livepeer Improvement Proposals (LIPs).
On-Chain Treasury
  • In 2022, Livepeer launched the On-Chain Treasury to fund the long-term growth and sustainability of the network.
  • This treasury accumulates a portion of protocol fees (often called block rewards on other chains and also known as ‘inflation’ within Livepeer).
  • Livepeer tokenholders (the DAO members) vote on how to allocate these funds via on-chain proposals.
Governance
  • The Livepeer community uses a standardised governance framework to ensure that all on-chain decisions are well-informed, transparent, and executed effectively.
  • Decisions are made by tokenholders via on-chain proposals
  • Any tokenholder can participate in governance by delegating their tokens to a delegator or running a delegate node themselves. Delegating LPT
DAO MembersLivepeer DAO members include:
  • Orchestrators who have LPT staked as collateral on the Livepeer network
  • Delegators who have staked their LPT to an orchestrator (with votes generally following the orchestrator’s vote)
  • Developers & Other Node operators (gateways)
  • Community members holding LPT (even if not delegating or actively participating as an actor in the network)
  • Other Tokenholders such as those that may also be part of Livepeer Inc., the Livepeer Foundation, SPEs or other Ecosystem projects.
Notable Decisions
  • Approval of the Confluence upgrade (migrating to Arbitrum) via LIP-73
  • Funding of the AI Video SPE (multiple stages funded by votes),
  • Grants to applications like Lenstube and Dlive
  • The Livepeer DAO was a driving factor in establishing the Foundation and advisory boards, with members pushing for more strategic use of the treasury in 2024 and 2025.
“Token holders want to see the onchain treasury deployed more strategically to drive more utility and earning potential from the token”

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Special Purpose Entities (SPEs)

Special Purpose Entities (SPEs) are mission-driven, community-funded teams formed to execute specific projects for the Livepeer network. They allow faster, focused progress on particular needs, funded by the on-chain treasury and accountable to token holders.
“SPEs are typically mission-driven groups that operate independently to build infrastructure, applications, or tooling that expand and improve the Livepeer protocol. These teams are funded through proposals to the onchain treasury and are accountable to the community.”
These teams provide agile, responsive, accountable and focused progress on ecosystem needs. They allow Livepeer to innovate fast and move quickly on opportunities.
Role in Ecosystem
  • SPEs execute on strategic initiatives voted on by the Livepeer DAO.
  • They are accountable to the community and must align with the long-term vision of the Livepeer network.
  • These teams provide agile, responsive, and accountable progress on ecosystem needs and allow Livepeer to innovate fast and move quickly on opportunities.
SPE Model
  • Funded by the Livepeer on-chain treasury via community votes
  • Accountable to the community and must align with the long-term vision of the Livepeer network
  • Provide agile, responsive, and accountable progress on ecosystem needs
Governance
  • SPEs are formed by a RFP process and have a DAO-mandated budget.
  • The Livpeer Foundation coordinates and oversees the operational and technical execution of the SPEs.
  • The SPEs report to the DAO via the Livepeer Forum and ProductLane.

SPE Focus Areas
SPEs may focus on:
  • Long-term infrastructure
  • Protocol development
  • Network-level capabilities
  • Ecosystem growth and adoption
  • Operational Leadership
  • Research and Development
  • Product Management
  • Education and Outreach
  • Advocacy and Policy
  • Community Management
  • Public Goods
… and any other area as identified by the Livepeer ecosystem, it’s strategic goals and opportunities.Notable SPEs
  • AI Video SPE - one of the first and most important SPEs
    • Strategic Focus: Build out AI-first video infrastructure. The AI SPE is crucial for Livepeer’s goal to be “the leading infrastructure for realtime AI video.”
    • Status: Active
    • Impact:
      • Helped Livepeer pivot from solely transcoding into broader compute.
      • By Stage 2, the SPE reported successfully running new AI use cases on testnet, and
      • By Stage 3, built BYOC and comfystream to scale this work.
  • Livepeer Cloud SPE:
    • Strategic Focus: Build out cloud-native video infrastructure & address the issues of “over-reliance on a few demand sources.”
    • Status: Active
    • Impact: The Livepeer Cloud SPE built the Community Gateway and also builds tooling and analytics for orchestrators.
  • Streamplace SPE:
    • Strategic Focus: Build a public goods video layer for social networks and Web3 apps.
    • Status: Active
    • Impact: The Streamplace SPE is building a video layer for social networks and Web3 apps.
Last modified on February 18, 2026