(Long Term) I read some very interesting things on your medium blog, Congratulations on Lokinet, and a few concerns. #1835
Description
I would like to start by thanking you for developing Lokinet, it has become a valuable tool in taking back my privacy. I consider Lokinet to be best overall in the desktop. I would like to offer the team a few ideas as a show of thanks.
I read on the oxen medium blog that all service nodes will eventually become exit nodes, I worry that this may discourage future service node operators and investors when it is implemented, but I think that exit node operators are the bravest of all mixnet relay operators, since they risk legal trouble with copyright trolls and police so that they can help us all access the internet as it was originally intended. I think that for their bravery and sacrifice for a freer the internet, the oxen team might want to think of a separate Lokinet block reward for exit nodes, the trade off they pay off the return on investment and reach profitability faster, and in exchange they help Lokinet grow its userbase, my first introduction with the oxen ecosystem was with Lokinet back when oxen was called Loki. I also worry about the prospect of an exit node marketplace, since unequal access to a free internet is a problem which needs to be solved, and paid exit nodes segregate exit nodes, if implemented, I worry it could put strain on the free exit nodes by separating customers who are willing to pay for less exit congestion from the non paying users who have to deal with it. If all exit nodes were free, but were paid a second block reward, the network congestion could be spread out over many more exit nodes competing for the exit node block reward, especially if their was a randomized option for setting exit nodes. I think this could be done by having exit nodes list themselves as exits on the oxen blockchain, for the purpose of burning oxen, it would be prudent to have service nodes identify themselves with a oxen name system name following the same format the public exit nodes are already using. (exit_name-exit.loki)
I also worry that since smartphones are becoming ever more prevalent, that Lokinet for mobile is more important than ever, since Lokinet is one of the few apps with VPN functionality that is fast, free, and anonymous, which give it the perfect properties for a mixnet/VPN app, which android is sadly lacking and if implemented would grow the lokinet community by bringing in new users, I was reading a while ago a large minority of smartphone users don't own a laptop or desktop PC, which is frightening to say the least.
The next concern I have for the growth of Lokinet over the time is file sharing, since the bittorrent protocol is only supported over exits, the ability to seed hidden files to hidden feeders would make Lokinet much more worthwhile than I2P for torrenting, but Libtorrent would have to be changed so that there is a configuration that would change IP addresses to the temporary addresses given to users for hidden seeding only, and support would have to be maintained for seeding through exits that allow it. The real deal though is whether these changes make it back to the official Libtorrent, although I think that torrenting is less of an issue to be solved right now than increasing the diversity of exits, since having only four public exits at the time of writing this is probably makes Lokinet users much easier to track.
Thank you and happy new year,
destroyer