Establish a Protocol Security SPE (Sidestream)

Purpose

Which specific business problem does this solve? How does this align with and advance the vision? And why should we be working on this now?

Livepeer’s protocol secures meaningful on-chain value and increasingly supports real-time AI workloads that depend on reliability, safety, and predictable upgrades. Today, vulnerability response, protocol maintenance, and core development rely on limited shared resources, slowing iteration and making it harder to proactively evolve the protocol as the network grows.

To strengthen Livepeer’s long-term foundations, the network needs a dedicated, always-available protocol development and security function with clear ownership, coordinated workflows, and the ability to respond quickly to issues, ship safe upgrades, and maintain essential infrastructure such as a public testnet. Establishing this structure now ensures the protocol remains secure, resilient, and scalable as demand increases.

Outcome

What does overall success look like in one paragraph? And what are some of the tangible key results that the submissions should focus on?

Overall success is when Livepeer operates a clearly defined, continuously supported protocol development and security function. Immunefi response and upgrade workflows are formalized and resourced, a stable public testnet is launched for validation, and a lightweight triage and release pipeline is operating and used continuously ship prioritized backlog upgrades. This creates a predictable, accountable foundation for safe protocol evolution as the network scales into transcoding and real-time AI workloads.

Key Metrics To Measure The Outcome Against:

1. Immunefi Response Readiness: A defined and resourced workflow enabling timely triage and patch preparation.

2. Public Testnet Preparedness: A stable testnet launched or fully scoped with a clear operational plan.

3. Triage & Release Pipeline: A lightweight prioritization and release process established and in active use.

4. Backlog Delivery Velocity: One or more prioritized backlog features or patches progressed through triage → testing → deployment per release cycle.