Exploring the Benefits and Challenges of the Livepeer Decentralized Live Video Streaming Network
Video streaming has become increasingly popular in recent years, with approximately 80% of all internet bandwidth now being consumed by video. However, for companies, video streaming can be incredibly expensive due to the process of transcoding, which involves reformatting raw video files so that they can be viewed optimally on a range of devices and bandwidths. Transcoding currently costs around $3 per stream per hour to a cloud service such as Amazon, up to $4500 per month for one media server, and up to $1500 per month before bandwidth for a content delivery network. These high infrastructure costs can be a major barrier for startups, leading them to sell user data, bombard users with ads, or even shut down operations completely.
Livepeer is a protocol that aims to address these issues by providing a more scalable and cost-effective solution for video streaming. Livepeer is building peer-to-peer (P2P) infrastructure that is secured by the Ethereum blockchain and interacts through a marketplace. The goal is to increase the reliability of video streaming while reducing costs by up to 50x. Livepeer is aimed at developers who want to add live or on-demand video to their projects, as well as users who want to stream a range of content, including gaming, coding, entertainment, and educational courses. It is also aimed at broadcasters such as Twitch who have large audiences and high streaming bills or infrastructure costs.
Livepeer works by using two key actors: orchestrators and delegators. Orchestrators are individuals who contribute their computer’s resources (CPU, GPU, and bandwidth) to transcoding and distributing video for paying broadcasters and developers. In return, they earn fees in the form of cryptocurrency such as ETH or stablecoin such as DAI. However, in order to be eligible to do this work, orchestrators must first earn or acquire Livepeer Token (LPT).
Delegators, on the other hand, are individuals who hold LPT and delegate it to orchestrators in return for a share of the fees that the orchestrators earn. By delegating their LPT, delegators help to secure the network and ensure its integrity. They also earn a share of the fees that orchestrators earn, providing an additional source of income.
One of the main benefits of Livepeer is that it allows for decentralized video streaming, meaning that it is not controlled by a single entity. This makes it more resilient to censorship and outages, as there is no central point of failure. Additionally, because it is based on the Ethereum blockchain, it is transparent and secure.
Overall, Livepeer offers a promising solution for the scalability and cost issues currently facing the video streaming industry. By providing a decentralized, transparent, and secure platform for video streaming, it has the potential to revolutionize the way that video is distributed and consumed online.
tl;dr
Livepeer is a protocol for developers looking to add live or on-demand video to their projects. It aims to increase the reliability of video streaming while reducing costs by up to 50 times. It does this by building peer-to-peer infrastructure that is secured by the Ethereum blockchain. It is primarily for developers looking to include video in their apps, users who want to stream video content, and broadcasters such as Twitch who have high streaming costs. The protocol uses orchestrators and delegators to ensure the quality of the live stream, with orchestrators using their computer resources to transcode and distribute video for paying broadcasters in exchange for fees in the form of cryptocurrency. Delegators help ensure the quality of the network by staking their LPT tokens on orchestrators they believe will perform well. Livepeer aims to solve the current issues with the high costs of video streaming by creating a more scalable and cost-effective solution.
