Lokinet is a onion-router (like tor, i2p) implementation of the LLARP protocol which tries to be a modern re-implementation of i2p. Session is a private messenger (like Signal) built using lokinet to hide metadata. If I understand correctly they have a cryptocurrency called oxen, which is earned or mined by providing servers to the loki network and oxen blockchain.
Imo they have these arguments on their side:
- i2p is really slow and if re-implementing yields the results they claim it would be awesome
- building a private messenger on top of onion-routing seems like a very good idea, since metadata is the new surveillance while it doesn’t generate massive amounts of traffic per user
What I worry about:
- I don’t like cryptocurrencies in general, they haven’t yet proven that they can be used as anything but be used to speculate.
- if people who are supposed to be the backbone of the onion-routing service are paid to do this I worry that in some (maybe new and still unknown) way this will weaken the network in comparison to a network run by volunteers and users (like tor and i2p). Maybe this will favor larger servers so all of the onion-routing is done in “the cloud” and none from home which in result is easier to surveil.
- a talk at the yearly chaos computer congress about the alt-rights online behavior titled “Let’s play Infokrieg” (the talk is in German, but I linked the version with english live translation) talks about lokinet and how the developer advertised it on 8chan. This is all the connection they mention though and it’s pretty thin Imo.
- in general I believe that cryptocurrencies don’t draw a very good crowd, also
- I haven’t seen any reputable source advertise any of this. Not Lokinet, not session messenger, of course not their crypto coin…
Conclusion:
All of this isn’t a big problem, if they stay a small project. But them having the fastest onion-router, elon musk maybe tweeting about them and people flocking to them to “invest” might have the project gain momentum and them being the new tor or even bigger, applications built on top of it being a threat to signal etc.
I think some of their tech is very cool, a fast and modern onion-router could be very important for future secure web applications, but it’s troublesome
- it’s in the hands of people nobody knows
- motivated by financial gain
- coupled with cryptocurrency
What are your thoughts on this? I am really interested to hear, how we should tackle this in your opinion.
Maybe someone else can chime in that knows, but Session states the following in their FAQ which reads to me as if the crypto portion of the network isn’t yet merged with the messenger at all levels (yet). I would be curious to hear from someone else with more knowledge, as I liked the idea behind the messenger otherwise.
If the two (their coin and the messenger) are able to run together but still stay “unlinked” in regards to message content and I don’t have to hear about earning Oxen by using the service I am more inclined to consider it an option.
yeah I agree, but imagine if signals traffic was sent through an onion-routing network which wasn’t run by volunteers but by people trying to earn a cryptocurrency. I might be wrong with my suspicion, but I just prefer such networks to be developed by non-profits and run by volunteers.
That makes sense, I’d rather not have the currency impeed the messenger (regulations, climate impact, etc) if given the choice.