How the network works

Both orchestrators and delegators are governed by the same small set of on-chain mechanics. Once you understand rounds, the active set, and reward calls, almost everything else follows.

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Rounds

A round is the protocol’s unit of accounting. Each round, the protocol:

• elects the active set,
• updates inflation state,
• lets active orchestrators mint that round’s rewards,
• snapshots bonded stake for governance.

The common shorthand is “about one day per round.” The exact cadence depends on chain timing — use the Explorer for the current round and countdown rather than a fixed hourly estimate.

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The active set

Only the top orchestrators by total bonded stake (self-stake + delegated stake) are in the active set for a given round. Only active-set members:

• receive LPT inflation rewards, and
• receive jobs from gateways.

Stake below the threshold means an orchestrator is registered but earns nothing from either stream.

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The reward() call

Every active orchestrator must submit reward() on-chain once per round. That call is what causes the protocol to mint and account for the round’s inflationary LPT for that orchestrator’s pool — which is then split between the orchestrator and its delegators. If the call is missed:

• no inflation is minted for that pool for that round,
• the missed round is never backfilled,
• every delegator in that pool permanently misses that round’s inflation.

This is the single most important reliability signal on the network. It’s why orchestrators automate reward calling and why delegators check a candidate’s reward-call history before bonding.

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How stake is accounted

When a delegator bonds to an orchestrator, the orchestrator’s effective stake grows by that amount. That total is what determines active-set ranking and the size of the orchestrator’s reward pool. Your tokens remain yours; only your stake weight is attributed to the operator you chose. The protocol tracks earnings through cumulative accounting rather than rewriting every delegator’s balance each round. You realize accrued earnings by calling claimEarnings(), which also runs automatically when you bond more, unbond, rebond, or redelegate.

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Where demand comes from

Everything above is the supply side. The work itself comes from applications — real-time AI video products, streaming platforms, and other services that need video transcoded or AI models run. Applications don’t talk to orchestrators directly: they integrate with a gateway, which aggregates their jobs, selects orchestrators (by capability, price, latency, performance, and stake), and pays for the work in ETH. From an orchestrator’s seat, gateways are the demand.

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The life of a job

This is what happens when a gateway sends a single job to an orchestrator: Over many tickets, actual ETH earnings converge to the expected value (face value × win probability). This probabilistic micropayment scheme avoids an on-chain transaction per segment.

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The protocol contracts

Orchestrators interact with four contracts; gateways touch only two of them. This protocol depth is what distinguishes the orchestrator role. See Contract addresses for the deployed addresses and how to verify them.

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