Loki is a privacy network which will allow users to transact and communicate privately over the internet, providing a suite of tools to help maintain the maximum amount of anonymity possible while browsing, transacting and communication online.
Using the decentralized nature of blockchain technology, Loki creates new private and secure methods of interacting with the internet, as well as building privacy-centric applications, such as messaging services, forums, online marketplaces, and social media platforms.
ICO
The Loki Network token sale ended on 26th of March 2018, with the project raising $9,000,000.
Service Nodes
Loki’s networking functionality and scalability is enabled by a set of incentivized nodes called Service Nodes. To operate a Service Node, an operator time-locks a significant amount of Loki and provides a minimum level of bandwidth and storage to the network. In return for their services, Loki Service Node operators receive a portion of the block reward from each block. The resulting network provides market-based resistance to Sybil attacks, addressing a range of problems with existing mixnets and privacy-centric services.
Lokinet
Service Nodes on the Loki network will operate a low latency onion routing protocol, forming a fully decentralised overlay network, called Lokinet. The network does not rely on trusted authorities and its state is fully derived from the blockchain.
Users can connect to individual Service Nodes and create bidirectional paths for packets to be routed through. The network can be used to access internally hosted services called SNApps. SNApps allow you to host hidden private web applications inside of Lokinet. With SNApps you can build censorship resistant social media platforms, news sites, marketplaces and other communities.
Loki Messenger
The first Loki service to be developed and deployed on the Loki network will be a decentralised, end-to-end encrypted private messaging application called Loki Messenger. End-to-end encrypted messaging applications that provide a platform for users to send messages without revealing their contents already exist, however they rely on centralized servers that can be targeted, blocked and shut down.
Conclusion
Overall, Loki is a Monero fork with very little overall improvement. It has privacy features equal to Monero with slightly tweaked nodes and a private messenger, which is an obscure feature nowadays with the plethora of private messaging platforms we have today.
Loki is an ok project. They have a former Monero developer on their team and apparently he has written quite a lot of the code for the platform. It’d be wise for the project to further differentiate itself from Monero, as for now it doesn’t offer anything particularly exciting compared to its widely adopted and known “parent” blockchain.
