Activation

• Make sure you have livepeerinstalled
• Make sure you have access to an Ethereum JSON-RPC URL
• If you are transcoding with Nvidia GPUs:
  • Make sure you have a Nvidia driver installed
  • Make sure you have Nvidia GPUs accessible on your machine

If you are transcoding with Nvidia GPUs, you can print a list of the accessible GPUs using nvidia-smi (installed alongside the Nvidia driver):

nvidia-smi -L
GPU 0: GeForce GTX 1070 Ti (UUID: GPU-fcbaffa0-38ae-02d0-5c47-f8fd9922eb75)
GPU 1: GeForce GTX 1070 Ti (UUID: GPU-d46a085e-0d66-0214-34d3-96860a5c778f)
GPU 2: GeForce GTX 1070 Ti (UUID: GPU-32b7c120-c2c9-0069-6130-cb67afd89642)
GPU 3: GeForce GTX 1070 Ti (UUID: GPU-9e4163c3-a120-3cbb-7869-1223b322eab2)
GPU 4: GeForce GTX 1070 Ti (UUID: GPU-3370975a-f669-e108-6428-602be9eba7d4)

The above output indicates that there are 5 GPUs accessible on the machine with IDs from 0 through 4.

Start your orchestrator before activation:

livepeer \
    -network mainnet \
    -ethUrl <ETH_URL> \
    -ethAcctAddr <ETH_ACCT_ADDR> \ # Only required if you already have an ETH account you want to use
    -orchestrator \
    -transcoder \
    -nvidia <NVIDIA_DEVICE_IDs> \ # Only required for transcoding with Nvidia GPUs
    -pricePerUnit <PRICE_PER_UNIT> \
    -serviceAddr <SERVICE_ADDR>

• -ethAcctAddr is used to specify the ETH account address that you want the node to use. The wallet file for the account address should be stored in the keystore directory which defaults to ~/.lpData/mainnet/keystore. The flag is only required if you already have an account that you want to use
• Using both the -orchestrator and -transcoder flags will configure the node to be an orchestrator and a transcoder meaning that it will receive video from broadcasters, transcode the video itself and return the transcoded results to the broadcasters
• -nvidia is used to specify a comma delimited string of Nvidia GPU IDs. The flag is only required when transcoding with Nvidia GPUs
• -pricePerUnit is used to specify the price (wei per pixel) for transcoding. The flag is required on startup, but the value can be changed later on
• -serviceAddr is used to specify the publicly accessible address that the orchestrator should receive requests at

If you did not use the -ethAcctAddr flag, an ETH account will automatically be created and you will be prompted for a passphrase:

I0302 15:26:06.886115   25387 accountmanager.go:49] No Ethereum account found. Creating a new account
I0302 15:26:06.886134   25387 accountmanager.go:50] This process will create a new Ethereum account for this Livepeer node
I0302 15:26:06.886138   25387 accountmanager.go:51] Please enter a passphrase to encrypt the Private Keystore file for the Ethereum account.
I0302 15:26:06.886143   25387 accountmanager.go:52] This process will ask for this passphrase every time it is launched
I0302 15:26:06.886147   25387 accountmanager.go:53] (no characters will appear in Terminal when the passphrase is entered)
Passphrase:

This account will be used to identify your orchestrator on the network. The wallet file for the account will be stored under ~/.lpData/mainnet/keystore by default. It is very important to safeguard both the wallet file and the passphrase because together they allow someone to sign messages and send transactions using the account.

Once node completes the start up process, you should see the following logs indicating that the node is publicly accessible:

I0302 15:27:26.456804   25418 rpc.go:167] Listening for RPC on :8935
I0302 15:27:28.463151   25418 rpc.go:207] Received Ping request

Your account should have:

• ETH to pay for transaction fees
  • Recommendation: Start with a small amount and add more when needed. livepeer and livepeer_cli will inform you if your account's ETH balance is insufficient to pay for transaction fees when attempting to submit the transactions
• LPT to stake in order to activate
  • Recommendation: Check the explorer and find the 100th orchestrator with the most stake. This is the amount of stake required for you to activate. Note that more stake will help you receive more work

The active orchestrator set consists of the top 100 orchestrators with the most LPT stake on the network.

Once you have your orchestrator running, you can activate using livepeer_cli.

1. Run livepeer_cli

2. Enter the number corresponding to the Invoke multi-step "become an orchestrator" option

3. Set the percentage of LPT rewards that you will keep (the rest will be shared with your delegators):

   Enter block reward cut percentage (current=0 default=10) - >
   

4. Set the percentage of ETH fees that you will share with your delegators (the rest you will keep):

   Enter fee share percentage (current=0 default=5) - >
   

5. Set the number of pixels in a single unit of work you will charge a price for:

   Enter amount of pixels that make up a single unit (default: 1 pixel) >
   

   You can use the default (1) and change this later if needed.

6. Set the price (in wei) that you will charge per unit of work:

   Enter the price for 1 pixels in Wei (required) >
   

   This can be the same as or different from the value used with the -pricePerUnit flag when starting your orchestrator.

7. Set the publicly accessible service address that your orchestrator will receive requests as:

   Enter the public host:port of node (default: 1.1.1.1:8935)>
   

   This should be the same as the value used with the -serviceAddr flag when starting your orchestrator.

8. Set the amount of LPTU (1 LPT = 1e18 LPTU) that you want to stake:

   You must bond to yourself in order to become a orchestrator
   Enter bond amount - >
   

   Important note: This amount is denominated in LPTU, so if you want to bond 5 LPT, you would enter 5000000000000000000.

   If the active orchestrator set is full (i.e. at 100), the minimum stake you need to stake to activate is the lowest total stake of an orchestrator in the active set. You can find this information in the explorer.

9. Wait for transactions to confirm. You should see the logs of your orchestrator indicating transactions being submitted and confirmed on-chain.

   After the transactions have confirmed, your orchestrator will join the active set in the following round.