Skip to main content
A configured node isn’t earning yet. This guide connects it to the Livepeer protocol on Arbitrum One: fund the wallet, stake LPT, activate on-chain, and confirm reward calling.
Start this after ETH and LPT are already in your orchestrator wallet on Arbitrum One. Acquiring LPT often involves exchange settlement and bridging — plan for hours to days. See Acquire LPT on Arbitrum.

​
1. Point at a reliable Arbitrum RPC

-ethUrl connects the node to Arbitrum One. Free tiers from Alchemy (300M compute units/mo) or Infura (100K req/day) work for most operators. Public endpoints like arb1.arbitrum.io/rpc are for testing only — a dropped connection during round initialization can forfeit that round’s reward. Verify the endpoint is actually Arbitrum One: 
curl -s -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"eth_chainId","params":[],"id":1}' \
  YOUR_RPC_URL
# Expect "result":"0xa4b1" (42161). "0x1" means you're on Ethereum L1 — switch endpoints.

​
2. Identify and back up the wallet

On first start, go-livepeer creates an account and prints the address in the logs. Record it — this address receives ETH fees and holds your staked LPT. 
docker compose logs 2>&1 | grep -i "account\|address"
The private key lives at ~/.lpData/arbitrum-one-mainnet/keystore. Back it up offline now. Losing the keystore means permanent loss of the account and all bonded LPT.

​
3. Fund the wallet with ETH on Arbitrum

Every on-chain action (activation, reward calls, ticket redemption) costs gas. Keep at least 0.05 ETH on Arbitrum One to start, and never let it fall below ~0.01 ETH. Get arbETH by withdrawing from an exchange that supports Arbitrum, or bridging from L1 at bridge.arbitrum.io. Verify the balance on Arbiscan.

​
4. Stake LPT

LPT bonded to your address is what puts you in the active set (top orchestrators by total stake). Check the current threshold on the Explorer before deciding how much to acquire. Then open the CLI and bond: 
docker exec -it livepeer-orchestrator livepeer_cli
Select the bond/stake option and enter an amount. Two transactions are submitted — approve, then bond. Wait for both to confirm.

​
5. Activate on-chain

In livepeer_cli, select “Invoke multi-step ‘become an orchestrator’” and set your commission:
PromptExampleMeaning
Reward Cut10% of LPT inflation you keep (10% → delegators get 90%)
Fee Cut95% of ETH fees you keep (95% → delegators get 5%)
Service addressYOUR_PUBLIC_IP:8935Must match -serviceAddr exactly
The Explorer displays Fee Cut inverted, as “Fee Share.” Set Fee Cut 95 here and your profile will show Fee Share 5% — the portion passed to delegators. That’s the same setting, not a misconfiguration. (Reward Cut displays as-is.)
Your node joins the active set at the start of the next round (~22h), and only if your total stake is in the top 100. The Explorer may show Registered until then.
See Economics for how these two settings affect both your earnings and your appeal to delegators.

​
6. Confirm reward calling

go-livepeer calls reward() automatically each round by default. Make sure it isn’t disabled: 
docker compose logs 2>&1 | grep -i reward
The startup command should not include -reward=false. A missed round forfeits that round’s LPT permanently — there is no catch-up.
Exception for very low stake: if reward-call gas costs more than the LPT you’d earn, disabling automatic calling and calling manually until your stake grows can be the rational choice. Reward calls use ~350k–450k gas (cents at typical Arbitrum prices).

​
7. Verify

On explorer.livepeer.org/orchestrators, search your address and confirm Status, Service URI, Stake, Reward Cut, and Fee Cut. Then confirm external reachability: 
curl -k https://YOUR_PUBLIC_IP:8935/status
If the Service URI is wrong or unreachable, update it in livepeer_cli (this costs gas). A bad or unreachable service address is the most common reason an active node still receives no jobs — see the FAQ.

​
Next

Set pricing

The other half of getting selected by gateways.

Add AI inference

Open a second revenue stream.