On the website https://explorer.livepeer.org/transcoders I see that the next round has to be initialized. I get an orange block with “mainnet || round #1477”. If I click it, I see that I can click a button to initialize the next round.
Normally the transcoders would do this, right? Why hasn’t it happened already?
And what if I click initialize the next round? Will I be rewarded like transcoders?
Usually, the Livepeer team initializes the round. At the moment, the Ethereum network is quite full and has gas price spikes - so their transaction was stuck since it was submitted with a low gas price. Since we were already >1000 blocks into the round without it being initialized, I decided to do it by sending a transaction myself.
So everybody can initialize the round - the problem is that there is no reward for it and it’s also quite expensive at the current gas prices. So no, you will get nothing for initializing the round… the transcoders get rewarded for staying online and claiming the reward every round, not for initializing the round.
Thanks to those who have initialised recent rounds, including @vires-in-numeris @dob @staken.io and a few anonymous Initialisers!
Ahh alright, thanks for clarifying, and to those who initialize rounds.
What happens if nobody is initializing the round? Then no rewards would be paid, but the network does continue to run as long as transcoders continue (since payments happen on the Ethereum network, payments are unaffected), right?