The Livpeer Protocol uses two distinct currencies for different purposes:
Currency
Purpose
Used By
ETH/Wei
Service payments (transcoding, AI)
Gateways → Orchestrators
LPT
Staking, governance, rewards
Orchestrators, Delegators
The separation is intentional: ETH handles actual service payments while LPT handles protocol governance and staking.
This design keeps service costs predictable in a stable currency while allowing LPT to serve its governance functionPrice Configuration
Prices can be specified in wei or converted from fiat currencies starter.go:891-908
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pricePerUnit, currency, err := parsePricePerUnit(*cfg.PricePerUnit)// Supports: "1000", "0.50USD", "1.5EUR" etc.// Converts to wei for actual payments
Gateways pay for transcoding and AI processing services using ETH (Ethereum), not Livepeer tokens (LPT).
The payment system is built on Ethereum’s currency.