LiveInfra SPE
Joey Kuhnsman
admin@liveinfraspe.com
ENS: liveinfra.eth
Discord: @ftkuhnsman
Abstract
The LiveInfra SPE seeks to enhance the Community Arbitrum Node, a free RPC service built and operated for the Livepeer community, by achieving 99.9% uptime through additional compute, improved software, and enhanced redundancy. This proposal requests funds to cover increased recurring operational costs and one-time enhancements for the next quarter, building on prior unreimbursed efforts to empower Livepeer members with cost-free blockchain infrastructure.
Mission
Simply put, the LiveInfra SPE aims to empower the Livepeer community by providing free, reliable blockchain infrastructure services.
Problem and Importance
Livepeer community members rely on blockchain infrastructure to build decentralized video applications, but operating RPC nodes is complex, time-consuming, and costly, and third-party providers charge high fees. The Community Arbitrum Node provides free RPC access to Arbitrum L2, eliminating these barriers. However, achieving consistent 99.9% uptime remains a challenge due to hardware limitations and software constraints.
Rationale
The LiveInfra SPE will strengthen the Livepeer ecosystem by enhancing the Community Arbitrum Node and fostering builder-driven infrastructure innovation. Funding will be obtained via Livepeer treasury grants on a recurring basis, but it’s important to note that this proposal (and all future proposals) covers only future expenses, not past expenses.
Current Community Arbitrum Node Operations
The Community Arbitrum Node, which has been developed and operated without reimbursement, provides free Arbitrum L2 RPC endpoints to Livepeer community members, enabling them to build video infrastructure without managing nodes or paying third-party providers. It operates with load-balanced and geo-distributed Ethereum L1 nodes (execution and consensus) and Arbitrum Nitro L2 nodes. A custom proxy layer authenticates user requests via unique URL endpoints, accessible to active orchestrators, broadcasters, and delegators (with ≥100 LPT staked) after signing up with a Livepeer wallet. Additionally, FTK created the RPC Balancer tool, a separate open-source utility that enhances redundancy by allowing Livepeer users to configure multiple RPC providers (including the Community Node or third parties) and failover to alternatives when a provider fails, ensuring uninterrupted service.
Planned Enhancements
The Community Arbitrum Node has faced challenges in maintaining 99.9% uptime due to constraints in hardware capacity and software error handling. With treasury funding, the SPE will deploy higher-quality cloud resources and enhance the node’s software. The following improvements will make the node a dependable backbone for Livepeer’s blockchain interactions:
- More Redundant Compute: Provision more and higher-quality hardware with large NVMe drives and dedicated CPUs to handle increasing compute and storage capacity requirements.
- Software Upgrades (v2 Service): Develop real-time health checks to detect issues instantly, implement individual request retries, and enable seamless failover to redundant nodes (at the individual request level), reducing downtime. A new KPI dashboard will provide transparent metrics on uptime, usage, and performance.
- RPC Balancer Enhancements: Upgrade the RPC Balancer tool to improve its failover logic and support for multi-provider configurations, making it easier for Livepeer users to integrate redundant RPC sources.
- Add Ethereum L1 Support: Provides users with both L1 and L2 RPC endpoints
SPE Governance Structure
The SPE is led by Joey Kuhnsman (ftkstaking.eth) acting as the primary software engineer, decision-maker, and point of contact. As the SPE is currently only responsible for operating the community RPC node service, a single-member team is sufficient to meet its goals and mission. The SPE is open to expanding the core team as it evolves to meet additional community needs. As the sole lead, Joey will make initial decisions, with community input collected via Livepeer forums and Treasury Talks.
Milestones and timeline
The Community Arbitrum Node is operational, and this proposal secures funding to enhance its reliability over the next quarter. The timeline is simple and focused:
- Month 1: Provision and Redeploy
- Provision new, high-quality hardware (large NVMe storage, dedicated CPUs).
- Redeploy node resources to new compute for improved performance
- Months 2-3: Implement Enhancements
- Release v2 of the service: real-time health checks, request retries, and failover.
- Enhance RPC balancer tool for multi-provider redundancy and failover
- Maintain node operations and ensure stability.
- Month 3: Reporting
- Release a new service dashboard that communicates key service metrics such as uptime, node health, and usage.
- Ongoing:
- Additional treasury proposals will be initiated on a quarterly basis to obtain funding for continued operations.
Budget Breakdown
The LiveInfra SPE requests $25,500 USD for Q3 2025 to cover increased operational costs and one-time enhancements. This does not reimburse past expenses incurred by the Community Node. Funds will be converted to LPT at submission using the 30-day moving average price. Quarterly proposals will be submitted to fund subsequent operations, minimizing market impact and ensuring community oversight.
Quarterly Recurring Costs - $13,500
- $7,500 USD - Infrastructure: Quarterly costs for high-quality cloud resources
- $6,000 USD - Maintenance & Support: Quarterly node upkeep, software upgrades, and support
One-Time Deliverables - $12,000
- $2,000 USD - Redeployment: Provision and redeploy resources on new compute
- $8,000 USD - V2 Engineering: Develop real-time health checks, retries, failover, L1 support, KPI reporting
- $2,000 USD - RPC Balancer Enhancements: Improve redundancy and failover for multi-provider RPC strategy.
Total Request USD: $25,500
Total LPT tokens requested: TBD - amount of LPT will be determined based on token price at time of submission equal to the requested USD value plus a 25% margin to buffer against price volatility during the voting process. Upon receipt and sale of LPT tokens to the equivalent of $25,500 all remaining LPT will be returned to the treasury.
Funding Strategy: Quarterly Treasury Proposals
To ensure sustainable and transparent funding, the SPE will submit a new treasury proposal each quarter to cover the upcoming quarter’s operational costs (estimated at $13,500 per quarter). This approach serves two key purposes:
- Minimize Market Impact:
Requesting smaller amounts of LPT each quarter and selling them gradually, helps maintain price stability and reduces the risk of negative price pressure on LPT. - Community-Driven Continuation:
This structure allows the Livepeer community to evaluate the service’s performance and value each quarter. If the community is satisfied with the service, they can continue funding it. If there are new features or enhancements needed, additional funds can be requested ad hoc. Conversely, if the community decides the service is no longer needed, funding can be discontinued without long-term commitments.
This approach avoids seeking a large, one-time payment but rather ongoing support tied to performance and community needs. It also provides flexibility to adapt to future requirements, such as scaling infrastructure or introducing new services.
Final Thoughts
I (Joey) have been involved in Livepeer for years, and running the Community Arbitrum Node has been a steady effort to provide our community with free blockchain infrastructure. Maintaining a reliable RPC service takes significant time for upkeep and upgrades, and the costs of high-quality cloud resources like dedicated CPUs and NVMe storage add up fast. This funding request isn’t about making a profit—it is what’s needed to achieve 99.9% uptime and keep the service operational. I look forward to continue supporting Livepeer’s builders and our shared mission. Thank you.