Livepeer Token

What LPT is, how it differs from ETH, and the four roles it plays in the Livepeer protocol - staking, security, governance, and work coordination.

Two tokens, two jobs

The Livepeer protocol uses two distinct assets, each with a job that the other cannot do. ETH pays for work performed off-chain. LPT secures the right to perform that work and to share in protocol rewards.

This separation is deliberate. Service buyers should not need to acquire a protocol-specific token to use the network. Operators should have economic skin in the game in a way that scales with how much of the network they want to influence and earn from. ETH satisfies the first requirement; LPT satisfies the second.

Gateways pay in ETH. Orchestrators are paid in ETH for the work they perform. LPT is never used to pay for jobs.

What LPT is

LPT is an ERC-20 token deployed on Ethereum Mainnet, with a bridged representation on Arbitrum One where all active protocol operations occur. It is the staking asset of a delegated proof-of-stake system: holders bond LPT to participate in or support the network, and the amount they bond determines both their share of rewards and their voting weight on protocol decisions.

The initial supply of 10,000,000 LPT was distributed through the Merkle Mine at network launch in 2018, a permissionless claim mechanism that allowed any Ethereum address to mine and claim tokens directly. There was no ICO and no pre-mine. Total supply has grown since then through the protocol’s inflationary reward schedule, which mints new LPT each round to participants who stake.

What LPT does in the protocol

LPT performs four functions in the Livepeer Protocol. Each function is enforced on-chain through smart contracts on Arbitrum One.

Slashing today. The slashing function (slashTranscoder()) exists in the BondingManager contract, but the Verifier role is currently set to the null address, leaving slashing inoperative. It can be re-enabled through governance. The economic security model still relies on stake at risk - bonded LPT remains illiquid for the unbonding period and is exposed to whatever slashing conditions governance reactivates.

How value flows through the network

The protocol creates two parallel value flows: an ETH flow that pays for compute work, and an LPT flow that rewards the participants who secure the network. Both flows settle on Arbitrum One.

The ETH flow pays for actual compute. Gateways pre-fund a deposit and a reserve in the TicketBroker contract and issue off-chain probabilistic micropayment tickets to orchestrators with each transcoding or inference job. Orchestrators redeem winning tickets on-chain to receive ETH. This amortises payment costs across many jobs without losing the strong settlement guarantees of on-chain payments.

The LPT flow rewards stake. Each round, the Minter contract calculates the round’s mintable LPT supply based on the current inflation rate, and the BondingManager distributes those new tokens. Orchestrators that called reward() during their active round receive a share proportional to their bonded stake. Delegators receive the remainder of the orchestrator’s reward, after the orchestrator’s commission (rewardCut) is taken. A configurable fraction of each round’s rewards is also routed to the protocol treasury.

The two flows meet at the orchestrator. A working orchestrator earns ETH from the work it performs and LPT inflation from the stake it bonds. Delegators earn a share of both. The orchestrator’s feeShare parameter sets the percentage of ETH fees passed to delegators. The orchestrator’s rewardCut parameter sets the percentage of LPT rewards the orchestrator keeps as commission, with the remainder distributed to delegators in proportion to their bonded stake.

Inflation, bonding, and the target rate

Livepeer ties LPT issuance to network participation. Each round, the protocol checks how much of the total LPT supply is bonded and adjusts the next round’s inflation rate up or down to nudge the bonded share toward a target.

This creates a clear opportunity cost for holding LPT idle. The dilution is not theoretical: every round of inflation that an unbonded holder sits through reduces their share of the total supply. The mechanism design intends for stakeholders to either bond directly, delegate to an orchestrator they trust, or accept the dilution as the cost of liquidity.

Inflation parameters - the target bonding rate, the per-round inflation step, the minimum and maximum bounds - are set in the Minter contract and adjustable through governance. The exact current values can be read directly from the contract on Arbitrum One. See for the precise function signatures.

Bonding, unbonding, and rebonding

LPT participation in the protocol is gated by an unbonding period. This delay is the protocol’s protection against rapid stake exit during a slashing event.

Rounds are the protocol’s time unit. On Arbitrum One, a round is configured to approximately 24 hours. State changes triggered by bond, unbond, or orchestrator parameter updates take effect at the start of the next round, ensuring all participants compete on a stable view of the active set within any given round.

Where to go next

Staking, rewards, payments, rounds, and slashing - the protocol primitives in detail.

Every contract, every function. BondingManager, TicketBroker, Minter, and the rest.

On-chain voting, proposal lifecycle, and how LPT inflation funds ecosystem work.

Design decisions behind delegated proof-of-stake, probabilistic micropayments, and the role of LPT.

Where to acquire LPT to delegate, bond, or run an orchestrator.

Live network data: inflation rate, bonded supply, orchestrators, and rewards.