Overview
On March 14, 2025, a total of 5,000 LPT was transferred from the Livepeer Treasury to multisig safe wallet for the purpose of funding open-source software (OSS) sponsorships critical to the Livepeer ecosystem. At the time of transfer, this allocation was valued at approximately $26,128 USD, while its valuation at current prices is approximately $15,850 USD.
Rather than liquidating the full amount immediately, LPT was sold incrementally each month to match sponsorship requirements and administrative expenses. This approach minimized market impact and aligned cash flow with operational needs, though some value was lost due to price volatility and swap slippage when converting LPT to USDC.
After nine months of execution, the effective deployed budget total approximately $19,115 USD, resulting in an average realised value of $3.82 per LPT.
Administrative and Management Costs
Operational overhead was kept minimal and transparent. Over the nine-month period:
-
Breakdown:
-
Accountant services: 2 hours @ $50/hour = $100 per month
-
Project management: 5 hours @ $30/hour = $150 per month
-
-
Monthly total: $250
-
Total management time: 63 hours
-
Total administrative cost (9 months): $2,250 USD
Sponsorship Budget Allocation
Monthly sponsorship disbursements were structured as follows:
-
OSS Sponsorships: $1,875/month (approx.)
-
Administrative Fees: $250/month
This resulted in consistent support across the sponsorship period while maintaining sustainability amid LPT price fluctuations.
Project Scope Adjustments
Due to the reduction in LPT price during the execution period, the original project list proposed required adjustment. The following projects were excluded to remain within budget constraints:
-
Pydantic
-
Python-Multipart & Uvicorn
-
StreamV2V & StreamDiffusion
(These projects were privately sponsored by INC and therefore removed to avoid duplication.)
Final Sponsored Projects
Despite the reduced scope, the initiative successfully supported several high-impact open-source projects used directly or indirectly within the Livepeer stack:
-
oapi-codegen
-
imageio
-
OpenCV
-
ComfyUI-Depth-Anything-TensorRT
-
kin-openapi
-
FFmpeg
-
HiddenSwitch (ComfyUI fork)
Payment Infrastructure & Transparency
Most sponsorships were executed through GitHub Sponsors, enabling streamlined and transparent recurring payments. However, some projects—specifically FFmpeg and ComfyUI-TensorRT—required alternative payment methods such as PayPal or BuyMeACoffee, which were manually processed each month.
All payment receipts have been archived publicly for transparency and auditing purposes:
Receipts Repository:
https://github.com/oss-funding/.github/tree/main/payment-receipts
Additionally, monthly transaction summary has been documented to ensure full accountability.
Monthly Summery:
Community Impact and Ecosystem Engagement
Beyond financial contributions, this initiative strengthened Livepeer’s relationship with upstream open-source maintainers:
-
The HiddenSwitch (ComfyUI) maintainer joined a Livepeer Watercooler call to discuss the impact of OSS funding and has since actively collaborated with the AI SPE team (Muxion Lab). He now helps synchronize updates from the main ComfyUI repository into the maintained HiddenSwitch fork for Comfystream.
-
The maintainer of oapi-codegen has agreed to participate in an upcoming Watercooler call to share insights from maintaining a widely used open-source project. Livepeer is now proudly displayed as a sponsor within the project’s repository, increasing ecosystem visibility.
Conclusion and Reflection
Although it was not possible to sponsor every open-source dependency within the Livepeer stack due to budget limitations, this initiative represents a critical first step toward building a sustainable OSS contribution model funded directly by the Livepeer Treasury.
As the project lead for this initiative, it has been both an honor and a privilege to manage Livepeer’s first treasury-funded open-source contribution program. This experiment demonstrates the tangible impact that decentralized networks can have on the broader software ecosystem and sets a strong precedent for future community-driven funding initiatives.
We hope this effort encourages further participation, transparency, and long-term investment in the open-source foundations that power Livepeer and the wider AI infrastructure landscape.