Know Your Orchestrator #5 | Authority_Null
Introducing the technical and professional profiles of each Orchestrator in the Livepeer project
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Welcome to this Know Your Orchestrator (KYO) segment. This initiative is being led by the team here at Live Pioneers, with the main objective of introducing the technical and professional profiles of each Orchestrator in the Livepeer project, as well as highlighting any goals they may have. We hope this will help foster ties between Delegators and their favorite Orchestrators.
If you still do not know what Livepeer is, you can read our article here:
🎤 Authority_Null Interview
1/ Live Pioneers: How did you get involved in running a Livepeer Orchestrator? Do you have a team assisting you, or are you a solo operator?
Null: In 2018, after stumbling upon Livepeer for the first time, I Merkle Mined $LPT out of interest in the concept. In 2021, I rediscovered Livepeer and began exploring what had then become an established network of node operators, during the peak of the ETH mining euphoria. Seeing that I could provide GPU compute for video-related tasks — something that loosely aligned with the video-production work I was doing at the time — I was eager to jump in and learn the ropes.
It’s just me running my nodes at the moment, although, not really, since I wouldn’t be anywhere without the open-source community Livepeer has fostered. Without them, I would likely still be trying to wrap my head around Linux. With Livepeer, you’re never really a “solo operator”, or at least the network makes you feel like people have your back if something goes south.
I’m also presently working with a team of 5 building a Web 3.0 payment layer on Discord and beyond, and I’m aiming to hire our main developer full-time for at least a year so we can scale (none of us take a paycheck currently). This would allow for some more versatility node-wise as well.
2/ Live Pioneers: What’s your technical background? And how do you use your technical skills in your Orchestrator role?
Null: Aside from tinkering with computers for the last 18+ years, running a few Minecraft servers as a kid (does that count?), and shooting/editing video for 4 years, I don’t have a technical background. I’m not an engineer, developer, system architect, or master of dev-ops. I like to be competitive, though, and will figure out how to operate at a high level with sheer willpower and brute force if I believe the subject is interesting.
In Livepeer’s case, this was only possible because the community was willing to deal with the plethora of amateur-level questions I needed to ask, over and over, until I understood the basic concepts of the protocol. Once the information clicked, though, I pursued a series of grants, created a video for NFTLA, and partnered with Orchestrators to release some in-depth operational guides.
3/ Live Pioneers: What features of Livepeer can you highlight that make a difference in the web3 ecosystem?
Null: Livepeer is in a unique position to provide real-world enterprise services that extend beyond Web 3.0. In my opinion, this ecosystem cannot grow in the right places without such bridges. Livepeer also distinguishes itself from the typical hype marketing methods that many projects pursue. This allows the right kind of people to gravitate toward the protocol, which helps create the awesome community it has.
4/ Live Pioneers: How would you describe Livepeer in simple terms?
Null: Livepeer is a malleable network of GPUs, capable of quickly adapting to the needs of customers for video and now AI tasks.
5/ Live Pioneers: How did you first find out about blockchain technology, and what prompted you to get involved in crypto?
Null: I discovered blockchain around 2018, when Bitcoin was all over mainstream media, and I’m still kicking myself for finding it so late. I’m anti-authoritarian to the point where my views on authority might be considered extreme, so blockchain and the industry being built on it were magnetizing and have become my full-time obsession over the years. I’m thankful for Livepeer, which was very much the spark that drove me to dive deeper into Web 3.0, and gave me the freedom to do so.
6/ Live Pioneers: How did you find out about Livepeer?
Null: I really don’t remember how, out of all the shiny new things at the time, I didn’t miss Livepeer, but my life would look completely different if I hadn’t Merkle Mined $LPT in 2018, kept the tokens, and then did further research in 2021. It’s truly amazing how every small decision that led me to become an Orchestrator can be mapped out, and if any one of those decisions had been different, none of this would’ve happened. The only pro I can think of is that I’d have a closet free, one that’s now filled with fans and servers.
7/ Live Pioneers: What was your first experience with Livepeer like, and what convinced you to take on the Orchestrator role?
Null: Joining the Discord server in 2021 was my first glimpse into the network. I was trying to figure out how to set up a node myself but hit a snag and was completely clueless about what to do next. Immediately, I was greeted by some of the most patient, professional, and kind people I’ve met in any community, some of whom I’m now grateful to call friends and even colleagues.
I was guided through everything, from learning how to use Linux, setting up monitoring, load balancing servers around the globe, running Docker, advanced reverse proxy configurations, and more. The wealth of open wisdom flowing through Livepeer’s community is not something easily found elsewhere, and it was the reason I invested in stand-alone hardware within my first month of running a node and have been upgrading ever since.
8/ Live Pioneers: Can you briefly summarize what your daily work as an Orchestrator looks like? What types of maintenance, monitoring, and time commitments are required in running a node after the initial setup? Is it a full-time or a part-time job?
Null: I believe many Orchestrators would agree that the day-to-day experience of running an Orchestrator is what you make of it. For me, there are days when it’s better not to touch anything. Work is flowing, monitoring via Grafana looks good, and all my servers are running smoothly. During these quiet periods, I keep an eye on Livepeer’s Discord and forums for any information that could improve my setup in the future, updates I might need to apply to my nodes, or conversations where I can contribute.
However, there are other days, sometimes weeks or months, where things can be quite hands-on. A distributed server may need to be moved, a new Orchestrator set up, something may break and need fixing, or, as I experienced recently, my local servers undergo a massive upgrade and everything goes wrong at every step, turning what should have been a three-day multi-server build into a two-month ordeal and a lesson in a new Linux distro due to Ubuntu and certain hardware not getting along. Pain.
Note to others, don’t use the WRX90 WS EVO with Ubuntu.
9/ Live Pioneers: What changes are you eager to see come to the Livepeer ecosystem? And how could this benefit you as an Orchestrator?
Null: I’d love to see some QoL changes to the software we run as Orchestrators to make the experience for end users better. Better crash handling, more intelligent job distribution, anything that would class the network as truly enterprise ready, to be able to compete at scale. More job types would be awesome, but I’d rather see both transcoding and AI become AAA grade before Livepeer supports every use-case under the sun.
10/ Live Pioneers: How would you describe your long-term vision for Livepeer, as well as the web3 ecosystem?
Null: Livepeer has great potential to become a staple in the DePIN space, helping prove the point that DePINS are necessary and can offer enterprise grade compute at a fraction of the cost; however, I think both Web 3.0 and Livepeer need to continue to mature and evolve before sentiment from the broader market shifts positively.
11/ Live Pioneers: Now to finish, we will ask you a bonus question that could be interesting for the community… Quote just one unique music album to bring with you on a lonely island?
Null: Say what you want about Avicii but a quote from the song “The Nights”, in 2013’s album that has always stuck with me is “One day you’ll leave this world behind, so live a life you will remember”. I always interpreted that as, at the end, when you’re thinking back on everything you’ve done, make sure there are things worth noting.
☎️ How to contact Authority_Null?
Here you can find how to contact this orchestrator:
- X/Twitter: authoritynull (personal) & flipguardxyz (project)
- Telegram: authoritynull
- Discord: authority_null
- Orchestrator’s ENS: authority_null.eth
Don’t forget to post your question in the comment section so our friendly Orchestrator will be able to answer you. And please, remember to share this segment with your friends!
If you are an Orchestrator and are interested in participating in these segments, please DM us on X, or email via this link here. Thank you!
Do you have any questions?
Live Pioneers is the first unofficial community for long term LPT holders and supporters of the Livepeer protocol ▶️
If you have any questions, or concerns, or want to submit feedback, you can reach out to us using our social channels:
- App: livepioneers.app
- Telegram: t.me/livepioneers
- X: x.com/livepioneers
- Blog: blog.livepioneers.com/lists
- YouTube: youtube.com/@livepioneers
