Livepeer publishes 2.0 litepaper with protocol redesign

Livepeer teased the release on X — telling node operators its 2.0 litepaper was coming "in the next days" along with what the redesign means for them — and then officially published the document, written by founder Doug Petkanics, proposing a protocol redesign around AI media compute rather than video transcoding alone. The team posted a two-minute explainer video and hosted an X Space walking LPT holders, Orchestrators, and builders through the proposal.

The proposal, per the video and litepaper: rewards follow the work, anyone can run a node, rewards are scored for honesty before they are paid, and a predictable emission schedule caps LPT's max supply. Key mechanics: a node's reward share is capped by its stake share; rewards pay out 7 rounds later at the validators' median honesty score; stake waits 21 rounds before moving; and new LPT follows a fixed schedule so faked fees can't inflate rewards.

The redesign introduces a Validator set that scores node operators on honest work so inflationary rewards follow real usage rather than pure stake, keeps node operators and validators as the same participant set, positions Livepeer as open infrastructure for agentic media creation, and adds governance-tunable fee/mint parameters. The document is framed as a concrete starting point after months of community discussion, not the final spec.