Livepeer token (LPT) is an ERC-20 token used by the Livepeer protocol – a network for decentralized video streaming built on the Ethereum blockchain. It aims to improve video quality and make streaming services more available to developers.

Live streaming takes up a huge chunk of the Internet’s bandwidth. The streaming videos have to be transcoded – to optimize them for different devices and internet capabilities. This process, however, is very expensive, which makes it inaccessible for small video-focused startups. Livepeer solves this issue by providing developers with a platform they can use to add streaming capabilities to their projects. This platform’s underlying infrastructure is p2p, which helps lower the costs while simultaneously increasing streaming reliability.

Some nodes participate in the transcoding process by contributing some of their computing resources to the network, called orchestrators. The right to become an orchestrator is granted by holding Livepeer tokens. Another type of node, called Delegator, stakes its tokens toward an orchestrator but doesn’t do the work itself. Both orchestrators and Delegators get rewards for their participation. Developers and end-users, for their part, utilize their tokens as a means of payment for the network’s services. Any token holder can also participate in the voting process.