Frequently Asked Questions¶
General¶
Service Nodes¶
SNApps¶
Loki Services¶
General¶
What is Loki?¶
Loki provides users with tools to interact online in an anonymous, decentralised, secure and private way. By combining a private transaction network, the $LOKI cryptocurrency, economically incentivised Service Nodes, Loki is able to create a trustless quorum based mixnet called Lokinet. Built into Lokinet is Loki Messenger - a decentralised, anonymous and private messaging service. Front end applications, known as Service Node Apps (SNApps) operate on Lokinet, and will allow browser integration and contribution from our open-source community.
Is Loki Proof of Work (PoW) or Proof of Service (PoS)?¶
Loki uses a hybrid of Proof of Work and Proof of Service, similar to how DASH is secured by PoW but also has a reward for their masternodes through a Proof of Service.
What is the token supply?¶
Like Monero, there is no total token supply. The current supply can be seen at lokiblocks.com.
What do you do differently from Monero?¶
Aside from some minor changes in approach to the core currency, we implement a Service Node network that performs a variety of functions, including an anonymous networking layer, trustless quorum-based instant transactions through a system called "Blink", and a range of functions that leverage the networking layer to do things like secure private messaging.
Who would use Loki Network?¶
Loki provides both private transaction and private communication functionality, so the use case presents itself to users who want the highest level of privacy in their communication channels. As more SNApps are developed we imagine Loki will present it self as the network to run privacy-centric applications on top of.
Is Loki an ERC20 token?¶
It is not an ERC20 token. Loki is its own coin running its own mainnet. See lokiblocks.com
Why the name Loki?¶
Loki is the Norse god of trickery. This is fitting as we use a lot of digital 'tricks' to obfuscate transactional data. Also, it is a play on words as transactions and communications on the network are very 'Low-Key'.
What is the business model behind this peer-to-peer network?¶
Loki operates on an incentives structure provided by the network. Peer-to-peer communications only occurs through the Service Node layer which is already incentivised to run so there is less of an incentive to provide any additional businesses models. The business model post-launch for the Loki foundation is to continue to build both core Loki Services and aid in the development of 3rd party SNApps which Service nodes can optionally operate.
Will you guys commit back to the monero source code?¶
Loki plans to push back any useful changes to Monero, such as optimizations, bug fixes, and feature adds.
What's the difference from Monero?¶
Fixed ring size with minimum mixin of 10, governance block reward of 5% which will fund community projects and developments, and emission curve changes. These are baselayer changes that will differentiate us between Monero, however the main change that is being implemented is the second layer of incentivised Service Nodes, Loki Services, and Lokinet.
Can I see details about the premine?¶
Yes, see the premine report.
Why is there a 5% governance reward?¶
We intended to create a self-funding system so that users can be certain that no external influences drive the development funding of the network in an undesirable direction. The 5% block reward that is issued to the governance wallet is for this purpose.
This is a similar approach to other projects, such as the Zcash Foundation, who for the first 4 years of the network’s operation will receive a 20% block reward, and the DASH project, who receive a 10% block reward from the network.
We wanted to keep the amount significantly less than Zcash and DASH but want to make sure that it is enough to sustain the project indefinitely.
In the future, the community may decide that this reward is unnecessary or of too high or too low a proportion, in which case, a hard fork event may change the nature of this block reward split.
What is the block reward for mining?¶
The exact block reward can be found at www.lokiblocks.com, this block reward is split where 50% of the block reward goes to service nodes, 45% to miners, 5% to the governance pool. You can see more details on the block reward split here
What is the block generation time?¶
About 120 seconds.
Are there plans to support Loki on the Ledger Nano S hardware wallet?¶
Yes, it is in the works.
Service Nodes¶
Why are Service Nodes required?¶
The Service Nodes form a second layer network that allows for anonymous networking using a novel garlic routing technology. Service Nodes will route data being passed through our generalised mixnet, called Lokinet. SNApps are the front-end user-facing applications enabled by this network of Nodes. SNApps do not run on the blockchain, but rely on the consensus rules of the blockchain to enforce Service Node behaviours. This also means that SNApps do not impact blockchain scalabilty. Service Nodes don't mine blocks but do propagate and validate blocks like regular full nodes.
Is there a concept of 'Masternodes' in Loki?¶
Yes, they are called Service Nodes in Loki.
What is the collateral requirement to run Service Nodes?¶
The initial requirement is 45K $LOKI, though this will adjust downward over time. Pools are also allowed up to 4 people. For more Information on the collateral requirement click here.
Check out the collateral calculator here for the current requirement. You can either run a single node or join a pooled node. For a single node, you will need the full collateral. For a pooled node, the operator and all but one of the 4 contributors must have at least 25% of the required total collateral. See more details on service nodes in the Service Node Portal.
Can you run multiple service nodes in a single VPS server?¶
It is recomended that you run different instances per Service Node however it is not required..
SNapps¶
Do SNApps run on Service Nodes only?¶
When accessing a SNApp your data is obfuscated by being routed through multiple Service Nodes. The SNApp you are accessing however is hosted on servers, similar to hidden services in Tor and are computed client-side.
Are SNApps like DApps?¶
In the sense that their core function is 'decentralised,' yes. However, unlike most DApps, SNApps do not rely on on-chain execution or computation. All SNApps are computed client-side, and the networking is handled offchain by the Service Node network.
Where will SNApps and all of its data be hosted?¶
SNApps are similar to hidden services in Tor; they are hosted on servers by users.
Loki Services¶
What's Loki Messenger?¶
Loki Messenger will be a decentralised, end-to-end encrypted private messaging service. There are already applications that provide a platform for users to send messages without revealing their contents, however they rely on centralised servers that governments or third parties can target. By leveraging the power of public-private key cryptography and the Service Node architecture on the Loki network, we can create a service similar to Signal, a secure messaging application with the added benefit of decentralisation and network anonymity.