Gateway Economics
Read about Gateway Economics Here
Product Mental Model
Gateways- own customer relationships
- control ingress and demand
- shape reliability and latency
- enable compliance and enterprise sales
- provide product differentiation
Why Run a Gateway?
Below is some of the reasons you might decide to run a Livepeer Gateway - grouped into clear business and technical categories.Direct Usage & Platform Integration
Direct Usage & Platform Integration
1) Direct Usage & Platform Integration
Reasons related to using a gateway as part of your own product or operations.- Run your own workloads – Process your own video or AI content end-to-end with full control over ingestion, routing, retries, and delivery.
- Ensure SLAs on orchestrators – Enforce latency, availability, retries, and failover through explicit orchestrator selection and routing logic.
- Embed in a larger platform – Use the gateway as internal infrastructure powering a broader media or AI product rather than exposing protocol primitives.
Economics & Monetization
Economics & Monetization
2) Economics & Monetization
Reasons related to where money is made or saved.- Service-layer monetization – Charge end users more than orchestrator cost for reliability, compliance, convenience, or performance guarantees.
- Avoid third-party gateway fees – Eliminate routing fees, pricing risk, and policy constraints imposed by another gateway operator.
Reliability, Performance & QoS
Reliability, Performance & QoS
3) Demand Control & Traffic Ownership
Reasons related to owning and shaping demand.- Demand aggregation & traffic ownership – Own ingress, customer relationships, usage data, and traffic predictability across apps or customers.
- Workload normalization – Smooth bursty demand into predictable, orchestrator-friendly workloads.
Reliability, Performance & QoS
Reliability, Performance & QoS
4) Reliability, Performance & QoS
Reasons related to making the system work in real production environments.- QoS enforcement & workload shaping – Control routing, retries, failover, and latency vs cost trade-offs beyond protocol defaults.
- Geographic request steering – Route users to regionally optimal orchestrators to reduce latency and improve reliability.
Security & Compliance
Security & Compliance
5) Security & Compliance
Reasons related to enterprise and production requirements.- Enterprise policy enforcement – IP allowlists, audit logs, authentication, rate limits, and deterministic behavior.
- Cost-explosion & abuse protection – Prevent buggy or malicious clients from generating runaway compute costs.
Product Differentiation & UX
Product Differentiation & UX
6) Product Differentiation & UX
Reasons related to building differentiated products on top of the protocol.- Product differentiation above the protocol – Custom APIs, SDKs, dashboards, billing abstractions, and AI workflow presets live at the gateway layer.
- Stable API surface – Shield customers from protocol or orchestrator churn with versioning and controlled change.
Observability & Feedback Loops
Observability & Feedback Loops
7) Observability & Feedback Loops
Reasons related to seeing and improving the system over time.- Analytics & feedback loops – Visibility into request patterns, failures, latency distributions, model performance, and customer behavior.
Strategy, Optionality & Ecosystem Power
Strategy, Optionality & Ecosystem Power
8) Strategy, Optionality & Ecosystem Power
Reasons related to long-term leverage and positioning.- Strategic independence – Avoid pricing, roadmap, availability, or censorship risk from other gateway operators.
- Future optionality – Early positioning if gateway incentives or economics evolve in the future.
- Ecosystem influence – Gateways shape standards, surface protocol gaps, and influence real-world usage patterns.
| Category | Reason | Business Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Direct Usage & Platform Integration | ||
| Direct Usage / Ops | Run your own workloads | Content providers run gateways to process their own video/AI workloads end-to-end, controlling ingestion, routing, retries, and delivery. |
| Reliability, Performance & QoS | ||
| Reliability | Enforce SLAs on orchestrators | Gateways select orchestrators, apply retries/failover, and enforce latency and uptime guarantees. |
| Reliability | QoS enforcement & workload shaping | Gateways control routing, retries, failover, and latency-vs-cost trade-offs beyond protocol defaults. |
| Platform | ||
| Platform | Embed in a larger product | Gateways act as internal infrastructure powering broader media or AI platforms. |
| Economics | ||
| Economics | Service-layer monetization | Service providers charge end users above orchestrator cost for reliability, compliance, or convenience. |
| Economics | Avoid third-party gateway fees | Running your own gateway avoids routing fees, pricing risk, and policy constraints imposed by others. |
| Demand Control & Traffic Ownership | ||
| Demand Control | Demand aggregation & traffic ownership | Gateways own ingress, customer relationships, usage data, and traffic predictability across apps or customers. |
| Demand Control | Workload normalization | Gateways smooth bursty demand into predictable, orchestrator-friendly workloads. |
| Performance | ||
| Performance | Geographic request steering | Gateways route users to regionally optimal orchestrators to reduce latency and improve reliability. |
| Security & Compliance | ||
| Security | Enterprise policy enforcement | Gateways enforce IP allowlists, auth, rate limits, audit logs, and deterministic behavior. |
| Security | Cost-explosion & abuse protection | Gateways block buggy or malicious clients before they generate runaway compute costs. |
| Product Differentiation & UX | ||
| Product | Product differentiation above protocol | Custom APIs, SDKs, dashboards, billing abstractions, and AI workflow presets live at the gateway layer. |
| Product | Stable API surface | Gateways shield customers from protocol or orchestrator churn via versioning and controlled change. |
| Observability & Feedback Loops | ||
| Observability | Analytics & feedback loops | Gateways see end-to-end request patterns, failures, latency, model performance, and customer behavior. |
| Strategy, Optionality & Ecosystem Power | ||
| Strategy | Strategic independence | Running your own gateway avoids pricing, roadmap, availability, and censorship risk from other gateways. |
| Strategy | Future optionality | Early gateway operators gain leverage if incentives or network economics evolve. |
| Ecosystem Influence | ||
| Ecosystem | Ecosystem influence | Gateways sit at a coordination choke-point that shapes standards, surfaces protocol gaps, and influences real usage. |
Direct Usage & Platform Integration
| Category | Reason | Business Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Direct Usage / Ops | Run your own workloads | Content providers run gateways to process their own video/AI workloads end-to-end, controlling ingestion, routing, retries, and delivery. |
Reliability, Performance & QoS
| Category | Reason | Business Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Reliability | Enforce SLAs on orchestrators | Gateways select orchestrators, apply retries/failover, and enforce latency and uptime guarantees. |
| Reliability | QoS enforcement & workload shaping | Gateways control routing, retries, failover, and latency-vs-cost trade-offs beyond protocol defaults. |
Platform
| Category | Reason | Business Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | Embed in a larger product | Gateways act as internal infrastructure powering broader media or AI platforms. |
Economics
| Category | Reason | Business Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Economics | Service-layer monetization | Service providers charge end users above orchestrator cost for reliability, compliance, or convenience. |
| Economics | Avoid third-party gateway fees | Running your own gateway avoids routing fees, pricing risk, and policy constraints imposed by others. |
Demand Control & Traffic Ownership
| Category | Reason | Business Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Demand Control | Demand aggregation & traffic ownership | Gateways own ingress, customer relationships, usage data, and traffic predictability across apps or customers. |
| Demand Control | Workload normalization | Gateways smooth bursty demand into predictable, orchestrator-friendly workloads. |
Performance
| Category | Reason | Business Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Performance | Geographic request steering | Gateways route users to regionally optimal orchestrators to reduce latency and improve reliability. |
Security & Compliance
| Category | Reason | Business Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Security | Enterprise policy enforcement | Gateways enforce IP allowlists, auth, rate limits, audit logs, and deterministic behavior. |
| Security | Cost-explosion & abuse protection | Gateways block buggy or malicious clients before they generate runaway compute costs. |
Product Differentiation & UX
| Category | Reason | Business Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Product | Product differentiation above protocol | Custom APIs, SDKs, dashboards, billing abstractions, and AI workflow presets live at the gateway layer. |
| Product | Stable API surface | Gateways shield customers from protocol or orchestrator churn via versioning and controlled change. |
Observability & Feedback Loops
| Category | Reason | Business Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Observability | Analytics & feedback loops | Gateways see end-to-end request patterns, failures, latency, model performance, and customer behavior. |
Strategy, Optionality & Ecosystem Power
| Category | Reason | Business Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Strategy | Strategic independence | Running your own gateway avoids pricing, roadmap, availability, and censorship risk from other gateways. |
| Strategy | Future optionality | Early gateway operators gain leverage if incentives or network economics evolve. |
Ecosystem Influence
| Category | Reason | Business Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Ecosystem | Ecosystem influence | Gateways sit at a coordination choke-point that shapes standards, surfaces protocol gaps, and influences real usage. |
Full Table
| # | Category | Reason | Business Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Direct Usage / Ops | Run your own workloads | Content providers run gateways to process their own video/AI workloads end-to-end, giving full control over ingestion, routing, retries, and delivery. |
| 2 | Reliability | Enforce SLAs on orchestrators | Gateways allow explicit orchestrator selection, retries, failover, and quality enforcement to meet latency and uptime guarantees. |
| 3 | Economics | Service-layer monetization | Service providers can charge end-users more than orchestrator cost, monetising reliability, convenience, compliance, or performance. |
| 4 | Economics | Avoid third-party gateway fees | Running your own gateway avoids paying fees or accepting constraints imposed by another operator’s gateway. |
| 5 | Platform | Use as part of a larger product | Integrated platforms embed gateways as internal infrastructure powering broader media or AI services. |
| 6 | Demand Control | Demand aggregation & traffic ownership | Gateways own ingress, customer relationships, usage data, and traffic predictability, enabling aggregation across apps or customers. |
| 7 | Reliability | QoS enforcement & workload shaping | Gateways control routing, retries, failover, and latency vs cost trade-offs beyond protocol defaults. |
| 8 | Compliance | Enterprise policy enforcement | Gateways enforce IP allowlists, audit logs, jurisdictional routing, auth, and deterministic behavior required by enterprises. |
| 9 | Product | Product differentiation above protocol | Custom APIs, SDKs, dashboards, billing abstractions, and AI workflow presets live at the gateway layer. |
| 10 | Observability | Analytics & feedback loops | Gateways see request patterns, failures, latency distributions, and customer behavior to inform UX, pricing, and routing. |
| 11 | Strategy | Future optionality | Early gateway operators gain leverage if network economics, incentives, or fee models evolve. |
| 12 | Strategy | Strategic independence | Running your own gateway avoids pricing, roadmap, availability, and censorship risk from third parties. |
| 13 | Ecosystem | Ecosystem influence | Gateways sit at a coordination point that influences standards, surfaces protocol gaps, and shapes real usage patterns. |
Summary Table
| # | Category | Reason | Business Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Direct Usage / Ops | Run your own workloads | Content providers run gateways to process their own video/AI workloads end-to-end, giving full control over ingestion, routing, retries, and delivery. |
| 2 | Reliability | Enforce SLAs on orchestrators | Gateways allow explicit orchestrator selection, retries, failover, and quality enforcement to meet latency and uptime guarantees. |
| 3 | Economics | Service-layer monetization | Service providers can charge end-users more than orchestrator cost, monetising reliability, convenience, compliance, or performance. |
| 4 | Economics | Avoid third-party gateway fees | Running your own gateway avoids paying fees or accepting constraints imposed by another operator’s gateway. |
| 5 | Platform | Use as part of a larger product | Integrated platforms embed gateways as internal infrastructure powering broader media or AI services. |
| 6 | Demand Control | Demand aggregation & traffic ownership | Gateways own ingress, customer relationships, usage data, and traffic predictability, enabling aggregation across apps or customers. |
| 7 | Reliability | QoS enforcement & workload shaping | Gateways control routing, retries, failover, and latency vs cost trade-offs beyond protocol defaults. |
| 8 | Compliance | Enterprise policy enforcement | Gateways enforce IP allowlists, audit logs, jurisdictional routing, auth, and deterministic behavior required by enterprises. |
| 9 | Product | Product differentiation above protocol | Custom APIs, SDKs, dashboards, billing abstractions, and AI workflow presets live at the gateway layer. |
| 10 | Observability | Analytics & feedback loops | Gateways see request patterns, failures, latency distributions, and customer behavior to inform UX, pricing, and routing. |
| 11 | Strategy | Future optionality | Early gateway operators gain leverage if network economics, incentives, or fee models evolve. |
| 12 | Strategy | Strategic independence | Running your own gateway avoids pricing, roadmap, availability, and censorship risk from third parties. |
| 13 | Ecosystem | Ecosystem influence | Gateways sit at a coordination point that influences standards, surfaces protocol gaps, and shapes real usage patterns. |
brainstorm stuff
brainstorm stuff
Definition
If orchestrators are supply-side compute operators, gateways are demand-side coordinators.A gateway:- Receives user requests
- Authenticates and rate-limits them
- Decides where work goes
- Enforces policy and SLAs
- Aggregates and normalizes demand
- Exposes a stable API surface to customers
- Demand governors
- Reliability layers
- Compliance wrappers
- Product surfaces
- Economic choke points