How Livepeer orchestrators and transcoders are powering the future of video
They possess enough computing power to cope with all the real-time video flowing through Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook combined.
They are part of an engaged, evolving community that spans oceans and shares tips, advice, and pep talks at all hours of the day.
They got involved because they were inspired by a talk on the plight of video creators. Or a blog post about the financial success of those who went before. Or the growing buzz the project is generating in the crypto investment world.
They are Livepeer’s orchestrators and transcoders: the power behind the world’s new decentralized video streaming infrastructure.
“I find the transcoder/orchestrator community to be one of the most collaborative Web3 infrastructure communities I participate in,” said Chris from Chainflow, who became an orchestrator in 2018 after hearing Livepeer co-founder Doug Petkanics speak at Token Summit in New York.
A new paradigm for video streaming
The seemingly unstoppable video streaming boom has affected all our lives. Some 80% of all web traffic now comprises streaming video. But enterprising developers who want to try for a share of the $70 billion market face financial hurdles that can seem all but insurmountable.
Livepeer can help them overcome one of the highest: the cost of transcoding.
To ensure a quality viewing experience, broadcasters must first reformat, or transcode, raw video so it will play on any device at any connection speed. But running transcoding infrastructure is beyond the means of many start-ups — and centralized providers charge hefty fees to do the work.
Because it is decentralized, though, the Livepeer network — a nexus of 100 nodes coordinated by the Ethereum blockchain — can provide transcoding services for as much as 50x less than those of traditional providers.
This is where orchestrators — Livepeer’s term for node operators — play a key role. They dedicate bandwidth and computing power to the business of transcoding in exchange for fees from broadcasters (in ETH) and rewards (in Livepeer’s native token, LPT). Many orchestrators in turn operate clusters of transcoders, while others crowdsource the role.
And while the protocol is only configured for 100 orchestrator nodes right now (this is set to change), there is no limit to the number of transcoders that can run behind these nodes. Right now, there are more than 70,000 graphics processing units, or GPUs, available on the network in the transcoding game.
Pride in the mission
Nico Vergauwen in Belgium set up his first node in March 2020.
“I didn’t do the transcoding myself but allowed other people to easily connect their computers to mine. [I didn’t have] to worry about much of the Livepeer details [to] earn a bit of ETH that way,” he said in a Discord interview.
“This started out as an experiment but has over 100 users now and has been a big catalyst in growing the transcoder community, which I’m really proud of.”
He took the plunge into transcoding himself early this year, and wrote a blog detailing the experience and reassuring potential newcomers that they could succeed without heavy hardware outlays. His tale drew many newcomers to the ecosystem.
Orchestrators and, by extension, their transcoder pools compete for work based on their fees, location, and the quality of their performance. A substantial commitment of LPT — staked either by the orchestrator or by what Livepeer calls delegators — can also attract work.
LPT, which is widely available, is central to the network’s security, performance and governance. In return for staking their tokens with high-performing orchestrators, the current complement of 2,815 delegators (again, there is no limit to their numbers) receive a share of transcoding fees, network rewards and a say in Livepeer’s governance.
Some orchestrators are driven by motives beyond profit. NYC PHILANTHROPY and LPTNODE_JE, for instance, have promised to donate some of their earnings to charities. Others are attracted by an affinity for the problem Livepeer helps solve.
Titan Node, based in Canada, got involved after reading that the world’s largest digital asset management firm, Grayscale Investments, had added a Livepeer Trust to its family of sought-after assets.
“The reason for building Titan Node was me seeking to build on a crypto project that was within my skillset and that solved a problem that I could understand… Livepeer seemed to be a good fit.” They have since been joined by a small group of friends.
“As for the community, I was impressed [from] day one when I joined the Livepeer Telegram and Discord. In early 2021 most online chats were mainly attempting to pump coin prices or run scams in chat. The Livepeer community really discouraged talking about price and mainly focused on the actual project itself, which made getting involved much easier.”
Titan Node earned enough to cover equipment costs within the first week.
Galmiza, an IT worker who studied engineering and lives in France, joined after reading Nico’s March blog. They are now earning LPT while at the same time designing an app for teacher-student interaction that will rely on Livepeer for transcoding.
Chris from Chainflow also has a development background, so was acutely aware of the real-world benefits to creatives of cutting transcoding costs by orders of magnitude.
“In an earlier life, I took a shot at building Netflix for Bollywood,” he said via email. “Transcoding costs were a huge pain point. This is why Livepeer’s mission resonated so strongly with me.”
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