One DePIN, Three Workloads: Storage, Compute, Streaming

"One DePIN, three workloads" means AIOZ runs storage, compute and streaming on a single decentralized network, while most DePIN projects in video pick one layer. AIOZ Stream is built on that combined network, so you don't have to stitch two or three networks together yourself.

TL;DR:

• Most decentralized infrastructure networks specialize in one workload: storage, compute, or streaming.
• AIOZ runs all three on one network, so AIOZ Stream handles ingest, transcoding, storage, and delivery without wiring together separate vendors or separate wallets for each layer.
• You fund one wallet in AIOZ tokens, and one usage report shows storage, delivery and transcoding together.
• The tradeoff is concentration: you can't swap out one layer independently the way you can with three separate vendors.

Updated Oct 28, 2026: shorter opening, question-style headings, a labelled diagram, the documented AIOZ Stream rates and usage API, M3U8 import, and live streaming on the same account.

What does "one DePIN, three workloads" mean?

A DePIN, or decentralized physical infrastructure network, replaces a company's data centers with independently operated nodes. Those nodes get paid for contributing a resource such as disk space, GPU cycles or bandwidth. Most DePIN projects built one kind of node for one kind of resource.

AIOZ's node software exposes three resource types at once: storage capacity, transcoding and compute cycles, and delivery bandwidth. AIOZ Stream's pipeline runs on that shared base. So do AIOZ Storage, an S3-compatible object store, and AIOZ Pin, an IPFS pinning service. Your video is ingested, transcoded into adaptive bitrate renditions, stored, and delivered through the node network, without routing each step to a different specialized chain.

Why did other DePIN projects pick one layer?

Look at the highest-profile decentralized infrastructure projects in and around video, and each one owns one part of the stack:

Livepeer's documentation and blog focus on transcoding and, more recently, real-time AI video. Its tutorials walk developers through pairing Livepeer with Arweave or Filecoin for storage, because Livepeer itself does not store anything. Storj and Filecoin both publish media-specific content about video storage, but neither one transcodes or delivers a stream.

The compute-focused networks tell the same story from another angle. Render Network describes itself on its homepage as built to "supercharge your creative workflow" by putting idle GPU capacity to work on rendering. That scope stops short of storing or delivering the video those GPUs help produce. Each project made a reasonable bet to go deep on one problem. The cost lands on you as the builder: a separate network, a separate SDK and often a separate token balance for each layer, just to move a file from upload to playback.

What do you gain from one network?

The benefit shows up before you encode a single video. Setting up AIOZ Stream means creating one account, which comes with its own wallet, funding it with AIOZ tokens, and generating an API key. That key can create a video object and upload the file. AIOZ Stream then transcodes it, stores the renditions, and serves them, all on the same account and the same network.

There is no second contract to fund, no second dashboard to monitor, and no second support channel when storage and delivery disagree about a file. Billing gets simpler in the same way. AIOZ Stream's streaming pipeline draws storage, delivery and transcoding from one balance, in one token, with one daily usage history. A team that wires Livepeer, Filecoin and a CDN together reconciles three cost centers in at least two tokens to answer one question: what did this video cost to serve?

Where this shows up in AIOZ Stream today

You can see the shared base in how the product is wired, not just in how it's described. The same account authenticates your uploads and carries your storage and delivery usage, because API keys, wallet balance and usage reporting are shared across all three workloads.

The renditions a viewer's player switches between, guided by adaptive bitrate logic and the QoE targets it aims for, were transcoded, stored and delivered on the same network. Live streaming uses the same account too: you send RTMP from your encoder with a stream key, and the live session returns an HLS URL for playback.

What stitching three networks together costs

The multi-vendor path means three integrations and three sets of ongoing operational work. Each network has its own SDK to learn and update, its own status page to watch, and its own balance to keep funded. In practice your team runs three balance-monitoring habits instead of one.

When something breaks, you first have to work out which layer failed before you can debug it. Was the upload slow because storage was congested, because the transcoding queue backed up, or because the delivery network had a bad routing day? With three providers, that diagnosis starts from zero every time, since none of them sees what the other two are doing. A combined network can still fail. But you get one system to look at, one support channel, and one account where storage, compute and delivery events share a timeline.

This compounds over the life of a product. A pricing change, a rate-limit change or a deprecation notice from any one of three vendors becomes a maintenance task on its own schedule. AIOZ Stream publishes its pricing across storage, delivery, and transcoding as three numbers against one account, so you have one vendor relationship to track.

The honest tradeoff

A combined network is not automatically the best network at each layer. Arweave's pay-once, store-forever model is a different product from pay-as-you-go storage, and some teams want that guarantee. Livepeer and Theta have a longer track record in large-scale live transcoding. AIOZ isn't claiming any one layer beats a specialist at its own game. Most products don't need the single best network at every layer, though. They need one account, one bill, and one thing to debug when a video doesn't play.

Consolidating onto one network is also a form of concentration, the same way choosing a single cloud provider is. You may want to swap out your storage layer without touching delivery, or keep each layer spread across several vendors. A combined network can't offer that as cleanly as three separate pieces. It's a reasonable thing to want, just a different priority from the one this post is about: how much integration work it takes to ship a working product.

How AIOZ Stream handles it

On AIOZ Stream, the three workloads show up as three line items against one balance. The payment docs list the rates:

• Storage: $0.02 per GB per month, charged hourly.
• Delivery: $0.02 per GB delivered.
• Transcoding: $0.01 per minute up to HD, $0.02 per minute for 2K, and $0.05 per minute for 4K.

Your wallet is created with the account and accepts AIOZ tokens only, with a minimum deposit of 0.01 AIOZ. Deposits are credited at the AIOZ/USDT rate at the time of deposit. To see all three workloads in one response, call the usage endpoint the Payments API documents:

curl --location 'https://api.aiozstream.network/api/payment/usage?from=1714232234&to=1824232234' \
--header 'accept: application/json' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer your_access_token_here'

The response returns storage and delivery in bytes, transcode in seconds, and a cost field for each. If your videos are already encoded as HLS, you can also import them from an M3U8 URL, and AIOZ Stream copies the renditions into your account without re-encoding them. For the full rate table and deposit rules, read the AIOZ Stream payment docs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is AIOZ the only DePIN network that combines storage, compute, and streaming?
Among the highest-profile decentralized infrastructure projects in this space, it's the one we found running all three on one network. Livepeer and Theta are streaming and compute focused without native storage, and Filecoin, Storj and Arweave are storage focused without transcoding or delivery.

Does using one network mean giving up flexibility?
Partly. You can't swap one layer for another vendor on its own. What you get in return is one account, one wallet balance and one usage report, with storage, delivery and transcoding billed as separate line items.

Do I still need a separate storage provider if I use AIOZ Stream?
No. Ingested video is transcoded and stored on the same network that serves it, so there is no separate storage contract to set up before you go live.

Is this the same thing as a traditional multi-CDN setup?
No. Multi-CDN strategies combine several delivery networks for redundancy but still assume storage and compute happen somewhere else. AIOZ combines all three workload types on one network instead.

Can I bring videos I already encoded elsewhere?
Yes, if they are packaged as HLS. You can import a finished master playlist from an M3U8 URL, and AIOZ Stream copies the renditions without re-encoding them.

What's the downside of consolidating on one network instead of best-of-breed per layer?
Less freedom to swap out one layer, and less spread across vendors if that layer has a bad day. For most product teams the savings of one integration outweigh that, but it is a real tradeoff.

Related Reading

• What Is a CDN Edge Node: the caching/edge-delivery workload specifically, one of the three this hub covers
• AIOZ Stream Explained: Decentralized Video Infrastructure: why ingest-to-playback pipelines are changing shape
• AIOZ Stream Developer Guide: API, SDKs, and Webhooks: what to define before wiring up a video stack
• What Is Adaptive Bitrate (ABR) Streaming and How It Works: how adaptive bitrate decisions get made
• What Is QoE in Video Streaming, and Why It Matters: the quality targets that ABR is optimizing for
• What Is AIOZ DePIN and How It Powers Video Delivery: the node architecture behind the "one network, three workloads" claim this hub makes
• What Is an M3U8 File? How HLS Video Segmentation Works: the playlist format behind both playback and M3U8 import
• Live Streaming on AIOZ Stream: The Complete Guide: the live workload on the same account
• What Is AIOZ Storage? S3-Compatible Decentralized Storage: the storage product on the same network
• How AIOZ Pin Works: Pinning, Gateways, and NFT Tools: the IPFS pinning product on the same network
• 4 Key Developments on the AIOZ Network 2025 Roadmap: the 2025 roadmap for DePIN, Stream, Storage and Pin
• The AIOZ Roadmap: A Detailed Plan for the First Fully Functional Blockchain-Based CDN: the 2021 plan for the network, for history

References

• Livepeer's network vision update: Livepeer describing its own scope as transcoding and real-time AI video
• Filecoin for Media, Video, Gaming, and More: Filecoin's own positioning as a storage layer for media
• Render Network: Render's own homepage describing its scope as GPU rendering and AI compute, not storage or delivery
• AIOZ DePIN, aioz.network: the three resource types an AIOZ node contributes (checked Oct 28, 2026)
• AIOZ Stream Payments API: the usage endpoint and its storage, delivery and transcode fields (checked Oct 28, 2026)