Governance Advisory Board Candidacy

Advisory Boards
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Executive Summary

This post is for ecosystem participants and community members to propose their candidacy to join the Governance Advisory Board.

You can read the Advisory Board announcement to learn more about Advisory Boards and their role in governance and the setting of strategic direction for the Livepeer network.

Candidates have until Thursday May 22nd to submit, with the final decision made the following week. To give ample time to review and consider, we advise everyone to submit their applications ASAP.

Governance Advisory Board Scope

In general, Advisory Boards play a critical role in supporting the development of network wide strategic direction. There are four advisory boards covering the gamut of network sovereignty (Network, Growth, Markets, Governance).

The primary question the Governance AB will focus on is: How does the Livepeer project progressively decentralise to a community -governed protocol

Types of activity this AB includes are:

  • Protocol development and upgrades
  • Treasury management
  • Security council
  • Consensus mechanisms.

Time Commitments

Exact time commitment will emerge in the next couple of weeks. We estimate that AB members will spend roughly:

  • ~3-4 hours per week for 4 weeks during Recommend & Screen phases.
  • ~1-2 hours per week ongoing during Advise stage.

Advisory Board Member Criteria

These are the primary criteria to be met in order to be eligible and considered legitimate for an Advisory Board Member role.

Established reputation - have a solid standing within the Livepeer core contributor community.
Strategy-oriented - does this person have the cognitive capacity to think both long-term and laterally, taking into account different aspects of the Livepeer project.
Collaborative attitude - have showcased a collaborative way of thinking and working within the Livepeer ecosystem
Stake in Network - have 100+ LPT staked within the network

However, all ecosystem participants can consider the opportunity, even if you don’t fulfil all criteria.

Propose your candidacy

To join the Governance Advisory Board, simply post a reply to this thread answering the below questions.

Try to keep each answer to 500 characters or less, so ecosystem participants can adequately review all candidates.

1. Who are you and how do you spend your time?
Tell us a little about yourself. What name do you like to go by? What is the focus of most of your time? How do you like to spend your free time?

2. Why are you a Livepeer Contributor?
Tell us what brought you into the Livepeer network and what excites you about its future?

3. What is your relationship with the Livepeer network?
Briefly describe any historical contributions you’ve made or role(s) you’ve fulfilled within the network. Don’t forget to mention if you’re an existing Orchestrator, SPE member, grantee or Livepeer Inc team member.

4. Why are you a good fit for the Governance Advisory Board?
Advisory Boards are specialized. Describe any qualifications or contributions that could help visualize your specialized expertise in network dynamics, especially those that relate to Livepeer.

5. What is one area where the Livepeer network is strong, in relation to Governance?
List only one area concisely.

6. What is one area where the Livepeer network could be improved, in relation to Governance?
List only one area concisely.

We look to forward to hearing from you!

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1. Who are you and how do you spend your time?

Hi everyone! I’m Paolo, Ecosystem Manager at The Graph Foundation, where I lead initiatives to grow participation and support our ecosystem participants. I’m also co-founder of Live Pioneers and creator of Indexer Score and Graph Tools Pro. In my free time, I enjoy coding, studying strategy, and building communities to onboard more people into web3.

2. Why are you a Livepeer Contributor?

I co-founded Live Pioneers, the largest community of long-term LPT holders and supporters. What drew me to Livepeer was its clear mission and values around open infrastructure, and its real-world impact on decentralized video transcoding. What excites me most is the amazing human talent in this ecosystem and the capabilities to unloick new uses cases.

3. What is your relationship with the Livepeer network?

As co-founder of Live Pioneers, I’ve helped foster community discussions, surface ecosystem needs, and spotlight long-term contributors. I’ve supported the network through strategic content, coordination, and user education, always with a long-term mindset, as I’ve been a delegator since 2021.

4. Why are you a good fit for the Governance Advisory Board?

My work across decentralized ecosystems—especially in governance, where I co-founded Graph AdvocatesDAO, and in community design (launched nine global communities here and here)—gives me a unique lens on network dynamics. I design programs and tools that align incentives, ensure legitimacy, and could support GAB’s mission of neutrality and accountability.

5. What is one area where the Livepeer network is strong, in relation to Governance?

Mission-aligned, long-term holders: The network has a uniquely principled and dedicated group of participants who deeply care about its future.

6. What is one area where the Livepeer network could be improved, in relation to Governance?

Structured feedback loops: More consistent ways for contributors and token holders to influence priorities and surface emerging needs.

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Hi everyone, very excited to see applications come in. As the incoming Chair of the first Governance Advisory Board, I thought it would be worth giving an overview of my background:

1. Who are you and how do you spend your time?
Hi all, I started out my career initially running coding bootcamps. I’ve been fascinated by economics, human behaviour and incentive systems since school, which is what led me to blockchains and new way of organising. I would like to think myself as pretty Ethereum-aligned in principle; and I’m interested in new structures to organise human work and ways of coordinating and allocating onchain capital. I’ve worked with a number of web3 projects (Protocol Labs, Encode, Node Guardians) before working with Livepeer. Interests span from football to poetry to permaculture.

2. Why are you a Livepeer Contributor?
I believe building distributed, censorship-resistant, privacy-first infra is key to a world which is becoming increasingly controlled by the few. Video has become the primary medium to ingest information and is the backbone of the information economy. Creating open-source, distributed video tech which anyone can integrate into and use in their own applications will be key to ensuring that everyone has access to information regardless of who they are.

3. What is your relationship with the Livepeer network?
I’ve been working with Livepeer Inc since February 2024. I initially started as Ecosystem Operations Lead, project managing the AI SPE with Rick, and running a series of programs including the Startup Program and AI Hackathon. In October, I switched focus to Operations within Livepeer Inc, helping set up a clearer pod structure. Since March my attention has been focused on setting up the Livepeer Foundation, which I will be a Director of.

4. Why are you a good fit for the Governance Advisory Board?
I have been interested in protocol design and tokenomics since joining the space back in 2021. In 2023, I ran a residency focused on DAOs (through my organisation Chinwags), and have tracked the difference governance successes and pitfalls of adjacent ecosystems (Arbitrum, Gitcoin, ZKSync, dydx to name a few examples). My particular interest in Governance with Livepeer is how we can gradually progress from social governance systems to protocol-based governance, where onchain capital is allocated with minimised bureaucracy.

5. What is one area where the Livepeer network is strong, in relation to Governance?
An awesome Orchestrator community where every onchain treasury vote has reached quorum. Compared to other ecosystems, where voter apathy with token holders is much higher and delegates have less skin in the game, the Livepeer project is strategically positioned to truly be community-governed over time. As a broader Livepeer community, we should be proud of the commitment that has been shown 9 years into the project.

6. What is one area where the Livepeer network could improve, in relation to Governance?
More community-driven protocol development. Over the past 1-2 years, there has been a stagnation in protocol upgrades. We need to consider onboarding more contributors and ensuring that there is greater decentralisation of the signer process. This will decrease the reliance on a centralised entity and ensure that there ownership is gradually handed over to the Orchestrator community and token holders.

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1. Who are you and how do you spend your time?
I’m Nathan, and I’ve been working in decentralized governance for the past five years—initially at Snapshot, and currently as Head of Governance Design at Aragon. Most of my time is dedicated to contributing to key projects in the ecosystem, serving as a delegate in various prominent DAOs like Optimism, Arbitrum, and Uniswap. In these roles, I focus on providing governance-specific insights, sharing best practices across the ecosystem, and ensuring governance processes remain efficient without compromising the core ethos of decentralization.

Decentralized governance is really a passion for me, more precisely figuring out how we make decentralized organizations work. I studied political philosophy with a particular focus on new technologies, so this has been a longstanding obsession. However, in my free time, you’ll likely find me enjoying an IPA at a concert or music festival.

2. Why are you a Livepeer Contributor?
About six months ago, Rich reached out to exchange ideas on the future of Livepeer governance, which sparked my initial involvement. Since then, my interest has deepened due to Livepeer’s long-standing reputation and its growing relevance, particularly in the context of recent AI advancements. My contributions have primarily focused on governance design, growth incentivization strategies, and preserving the core values and ethos of the network as it evolves.

3. What is your relationship with the Livepeer network?
My contributions to the Livepeer network have mostly been behind-the-scenes, supporting the foundation through strategic feedback on governance processes, treasury management, and operational insights. I’ve provided recommendations on industry standards and connected the team with suitable service providers, and I’ve always been happy to share my knowledge of governance and operational best practices across various DAOs.

4. Why are you a good fit for the Governance Advisory Board?
My daily role at Aragon revolves around defining and designing effective governance frameworks. I approach governance with pragmatism, focusing on creating realistic solutions for tangible problems rather than abstract ideals. My extensive experience in decentralized governance equips me with a unique perspective and deep expertise, qualities I’ve already shared with the Livepeer Foundation. I think the Governance Advisory Board would benefit greatly from having members who can leverage industry-wide lessons and avoid common governance pitfalls.

5. What is one area where the Livepeer network is strong, in relation to Governance?
Livepeer excels in maintaining clear ties and structured relationships with key stakeholders. Unlike many other projects, which often struggle to identify and engage meaningfully with their token holders and stakeholder communities, Livepeer has successfully established and nurtured these vital connections, creating a solid foundation for effective governance.

6. What is one area where the Livepeer network could be improved, in relation to Governance?
Currently, Livepeer’s governance model relies heavily on a referendum-based approach, following a “one token, one vote” system. While this model has benefits, it presents clear limitations—particularly in terms of efficiency and informed decision-making. The introduction of specialized advisory boards, such as this one, is creating an important shift toward more nuanced governance, empowering experts to contribute informed perspectives while preserving ultimate decision-making authority with the tokenholders.

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Here is my application and some more insight on my background :heart_eyes:

1. Who are you and how do you spend your time?

Gm gm, my name is En Canada (pronouns: they/them) and I am Head of Community at Livepeer! I have quite a range of interests from social change to crew, but I have been deeply obsessed with web3 since 2020. Most of my time has been spent building, growing, and running communities. I have participated in numerous ecosystems and have helped with governance in a number of them. I was a part of the 2020 DAO craze and gained experience developing and starting onchain governance. Additionally, I am very involved in local politics where I live so I have studied the local democratic system intensively, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the current system.

2. Why are you a Livepeer Contributor?

I have always known about Livepeer being a part of web3 for so long. It was one of the projects I identified to be actually building a meaningful onchain economy. My current thesis for the next stage of web3 infrastructure is that we must build meaningful onchain economic activity. This goal has largely eluded the industry and I believe Livepeer is close to cracking the code with Live Video AI and transcoding. I am also very passionate about building alternative economic and social systems as I believe our current ones are failing too many people. The idea of decentralized video and AI infrastructure is critical for many of my identity groups as governments try to suppress our speech.

3. What is your relationship with the Livepeer network?

I am currently a Livepeer Inc team member! I have been with Livepeer for the last year and have deeply enjoyed my time here. I am also a participant in the Video Miner Pool.

4. Why are you a good fit for the Governance Advisory Board?

I have been living and breathing Livepeer’s network and community for almost 8 months now. I believe that I am uniquely qualified to understand where governance is currently struggling, where it can be improved, and where it needs to go in the future to achieve network PMF. My experience with DAOs and local democratic governance helps me understand the dynamics of onchain voting as well as strategically aligning the voting body around goals to progress our ecosystem.

I have also been sitting on the GovWorks SPE for the past 6 months where we have been developing governance at Livepeer.

5. What is one area where the Livepeer network is strong, in relation to Governance?

With the amazing work from GovWorks, we have developed a very strong SPE cohort that is pushing on critical PMF bets as well as maintaining the network. This strength has unlocked deep technological and growth opportunities for Livepeer.

6. What is one area where the Livepeer network could be improved, in relation to Governance?

We can improve governance processes so the voting body can decide on key strategic goals for the network. Right now we have little strategic direction for the onchain treasury, but a plan the GovWorks team generated would uncover the top 5 strategic goals for Livepeer’s voting body.

Thank you for reading my application! I look forward to continuing to grow Livepeer’s community and the impact the treasury can have on our growing ecosystem. :green_heart:

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1. Who are you and how do you spend your time?
Hello all, I’m Spencer Graham (aka spengrah) and I’m an unrepentant DAO enthusiast. I believe DAOs can actually be the best organizations ever, and I also believe that getting DAOs right is our best shot at building societal infrastructure that works in the new technological era.

Towards that end, I spend the majority of my time working on Hats Protocol to help DAOs create robust, programmable, and dynamic onchain organizational structures that make them simultaneously effective, cost-efficient, and capture-resistant.

In my free time, I love to travel, read science fiction, eat yummy food (especially burritos), and learn new things.

2. Why are you a Livepeer Contributor?
The world needs as much decentralized compute infrastructure as we can get. No matter how good we get at decentralized governance — and I think we can get very good indeed — the owners of compute will still have final control. This is increasingly critical as AI promises to dominate economic activity. Livepeer has an opportunity to lead the way in distributing fundamental control over such valuable computation resources.

3. What is your relationship with the Livepeer network?
My Livepeer relationship began in 2018 when staked the LPT I received in an airdrop, and it’s remained staked since then! More recently, as part of the Hats Protocol team, I have been consulting with @honestly_rich, @cult_leader_en, and other members of Livepeer, Inc on governance and operational structures for SPEs.

4. Why are you a good fit for the Governance Advisory Board?
I have been researching, advising on, building tools for, and practicing governance full time for the last five years. Across my experience as a contributor to DAOhaus and my work on Hats Protocol, I have worked with countless DAOs to design and implement their governance systems, structures, and mechanisms; drawing in part on theory and frameworks I have developed (e.g. Anticapture) as well as my background in economics and mechanism design.

I will bring all of that experience and expertise to the Governance Advisory Board.

5. What is one area where the Livepeer network is strong, in relation to Governance?
Thanks to its long history as an onchain protocol with robust onchain governance, Livepeer has established the legitimacy necessary to expand its governance capabilities. This will be a critical resource as it seeks to evolve, grow, and improve.

6. What is one area where the Livepeer network could be improved, in relation to Governance?
Livepeer could unlock valuable contributions by more comprehensively manifesting its organizational and operational structure onchain. SPEs are a great start here!

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Hi all. I’d like to be considered for joining the governance advisory board. (For transparency I’m also applying to join the Markets advisory board).

1. Who are you and how do you spend your time?

I’m Doug Petkanics, one of the co-Founders of Livepeer, and the CEO of Livepeer, Inc. Livepeer is a complex project that touches many different stakeholder groups and user profiles, from tokenholders, to node operators, to community members, to companies that are funded and build products directly on top of the Livepeer network. I spend my time helping to inspire all these groups across an aligned vision, recruiting and leading teams that work to meet the needs of all the stakeholders, and making sure the project and teams are funded to achieve these visions.

2. Why are you a Livepeer Contributor?

Video is 80% of the bandwidth on the internet, and it is one of the most important mediums that affects how we work, learn, get entertained, and communicate in today’s modern connected world. AI is impacting video, much like it’s impacting every industry, and it requires a tremendous amount of compute. Society needs an open video infrastructure to power this, that is independent from the handful of big tech companies that own the key applications and all the user data. I’ve been motivated to create this open AI infrastructure since the dawn of the Livepeer project 8+ years ago.

3. What is your relationship with the Livepeer network?

  • Co-Founder of the project
  • CEO of Livepeer Inc
  • Author of Livepeer protocol
  • Former node operator
  • Informal advisor to many SPEs
  • Author of many Livepeer improvement proposals
  • Point of contact for many of the large institutional Livepeer network participants

4. Why are you a good fit for the Governance Advisory Board?

In some ways I’m a great fit because I:

  • Have significant knowledge of Livepeer’s existing governance mechanisms and protocol, having designed them.
  • Have a viewpoint on the gradual decentralization of Livepeer governance as it relates to technology, security, and sustainable funding.
  • Have served as a governance leader, and can represent the project with authority

Though people should be aware that I am a little bit more practical/skeptical of overengineering governance too early.

  • I think the focus should be on PMF for the Livepeer network. Any governance that facilitiates or expedites that, I am all for - such as governance that helps effectively allocate funding towards builders who are helping to achieve that. But I am against performative governance - naval gazing around theoretically optimal structures just for the sake of running governance experiments pre fit, when that time and resource could be better spent trying to find fit for the network.

5. What is one area where the Livepeer network is strong, in relation to Governance?

  • Livepeer already has strong foundations for decentralized governance. It has a protocol through the LIP process for recommending network and parameter upgrades, as well as updates to the governance process itself. It has a failsafe security committee. It has a community governed onchain treasury. And it has strong leaders across the ecosystem to take the project seriously, care deeply about it, and participate in its process - leading to strong voter turnout.

6. What is one area where the Livepeer network could be improved, in relation to Governance?

  • Livepeer could benefit from decentralizing control over its security committee. This is theoretically possible via governance LIPs, but it would be better if it were onchain binding and permisionless to execute.

Thank you for considering my candidacy. I’m happy to answer any questions.

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1. Who are you and how do you spend your time?

I’m the Chief Revenue Officer at Tally, a leading governance software platform. I joined Tally three years ago as the first go-to-market hire, building teams across business development, customer success, and marketing. These efforts have transformed Tally into a prominent brand and critical infrastructure within the Ethereum ecosystem. As a board member, I play a cross-functional leadership role within the company.

In addition to my role at Tally, I hold leadership positions in the Arbitrum DAO. I’m an active delegate, have passed multiple proposals, and serve on the Arbitrum OpCo Oversight and Transparency Committee.

2. Why are you a Livepeer Contributor?

I’m a Livepeer contributor because I believe in the protocol’s mission to decentralize video infrastructure. Tally has a longstanding close relationship with Livepeer’s leadership team, and we are true believers in the vision behind the product. Livepeer’s expansion into AI video workloads makes it an increasingly critical piece of decentralized infrastructure that deserves thoughtful governance and operational support.

3. What is your relationship with the Livepeer network?

My contributions have primarily been through strategic guidance and governance insights. I’ve shared operational best practices from my experience scaling DAO governance at Arbitrum and other protocols, provided feedback on governance processes, and connected the Livepeer team with relevant service providers and industry contacts.

4. Why are you a good fit for the Governance Advisory Board?

Through my work at Tally and Arbitrum, I’ve seen firsthand how effective governance enables protocols to scale and how ineffective governance can stall growth. As Livepeer makes an important transition with the launch of the Foundation and Advisory Boards, I believe I can help the organization avoid mistakes while leveraging best practices in decentralized governance.

5. What is one area where the Livepeer network is strong, in relation to Governance?

I’m impressed by Livepeer’s recent efforts to expand external contributions by engaging with leading governance teams like StableLab, Gitcoin, Karma, and PGov. I’m optimistic that GovWork will establish a strong foundation in governance documentation, community engagement, and core workflows that will attract more high-quality contributors.

6. What is one area where the Livepeer network could be improved, in relation to Governance?

One challenge facing Livepeer is attracting contributors who are subject matter experts in the AI video infrastructure market. While governance specialists are valuable, it’s critical to also involve contributors with relevant experience in the industry in which the protocol operates.

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The Livepeer Foundation is forming Advisory Boards to create a clear and credible pathway for ecosystem stakeholders to participate in strategic planning.

Today the Foundation announces the preliminary structure, key areas of focus and strategic context of the Governance Advisory Board.

Key Focus Areas

The board will focus its work through 4 strategic pillars:

  • Technical Governance - Core dev team coordination, Github management, and decision-making processes.
  • Treasury Governance - SPE proposal evaluation, milestone tracking, transparency of proposals.
  • Community Governance - ecosystem calls and virtual events, feedback processes, codes of conduct.
  • Protocol Governance - upgrades mechanisms, LIP proposal evaluation, establishing best practices via a security council.
  • Strategy Governance - setting defined targets across different areas of the Livepeer project, tracking key metrics.
  • Legal Governance - compliance, DAO legal wrappers, licenses and IP

Areas which are not included are:

  • Tokenomics - key tokenomics will be owned by the Markets AB, who will consult other ecosystem participants for input
  • Network Upgrades - anything related to protocol-focused network upgrades will be owned by the Network Advisory Board, who will consult other ecossytem participants for input

Summary Recommendation

The Governance Advisory Board brings together a diverse group of leaders with deep expertise across decentralized governance, community development, and protocol stewardship—ensuring a holistic and pragmatic approach to evolving Livepeer’s governance systems.

With foundational knowledge from core contributors, hands-on experience from active DAO leaders, and perspectives from both protocol-native and adjacent ecosystems, the board is uniquely positioned to guide Livepeer through its next phase of progressive decentralization. This group will play a key role in shaping governance structures that are scalable, resilient, and aligned with both the network’s technical foundations and its growing global community.

Membership

After reviewing all applications according to the above criteria, the Governance Advisory Board Chair suggests the following structure:

  • Chair, Rich O’Grady (Livepeer Foundation) - responsible for facilitating the board, maintaining momentum, and publishing final recommendations.

  • Founder, Doug Petkanics (Livepeer Inc) - brings deep knowledge of the Livepeer network and protocol, governance expertise that stems back from the early days of Ethereum, and is instrumental in progressive decentralistion of the project.

  • Head of Community, En Canada (Livepeer inc) - brings a wealth of knowledge in community building and local activism, the leader of the Livepeer community and summoner of the ecosystem.

  • Community Expert, Paolo Diomede (Live Pioneers) - brings strong building and community-gathering experience from the Live Pioneers SPE, along with alternative perspectives from the Graph ecosystem.

  • Governance Expert, Nathan van der Heyden (Aragon) - brings deep expertise in governance best practices from leading roles at Snapshot, Aragon and acting as delegates in some of the largest DAOs, offering pragmatic, ecosystem-wide insights.

  • Governance Expert, Frisson (Tally) - brings leadership and governance expertise from Tally and Arbitrum, offering recommendations combining deep operational experience with a strategic focus on scaling effective governance systems

Next Steps

Community Survey - until June 6th

The survey covers key challenges and opportunities facing Livepeer, domain-specific priorities, and your vision for where the project should be in five years. Your responses will help shape concrete strategic recommendations and ensure the Advisory Boards’ work aligns with community priorities rather than operating in isolation. You can fill in here: Community Survey: Shape the Future of Livepeer

Onboarding & Pre Work - until June 13th

Starting this week, all members will be onboarded to the different Advisory Boards. This will include a briefing of key network and ecosystem data and the results of the Community Survey (above)

Advisory Boards Begin - June 16th

The first formal week of the Advisory Board process will commence looking at the core strategic pillars and long-term vision for the network.

Congrats to all the new Advisory Board members. Excited to get going :fire:

Rich

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Congrats to everyone that has been selected for the Governance Advisory Board: exciting times ahead :fireworks:

@honestly_rich quick question: how will this group communicate? Will there be a dedicated group on Discord or Telegram? Thanks so much :slightly_smiling_face:

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Hi @pdiomede, each of the Advisory Board Members will be invited to an AB DM on Discord. Invites are sent over the next 24 hours.

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