lokinet can in fact run without staking. this mode is called opennet mode. make sure to clear out any existing nodedb before starting lokinet in opennet mode. to run a client on opennet it is strongly advised to run your own lokinet routers to bootstrap from and use as edges. first set up an opennet lokinet router. to run a lokinet router on opennet: install lokinet-router package from deb.oxen.io # wget https://lokinet.io/opennet.signed -O /var/lib/lokinet/router/opennet.signed # mkdir -p /var/lib/lokinet/router/conf.d/ add the following to /var/lib/lokinet/router/conf.d/opennet.ini and restart lokinet-router.service [router] netid=opennet [dns] bind=127.0.0.1:15533 [lokid] enabled=false [bootstrap] add-node=/var/lib/lokinet/router/opennet.signed if you do not have a public ip on one of your network interfaces add another file /var/lib/lokinet/router/conf.d/pubaddr.ini [router] public-ip=ur.pub.ip.here public-port=443 [bind] 0.0.0.0=443 a lokinet client can bootstrap off of any valid lokinet router. on opennet it is advised to set up your own lokinet-router and bootstrap any clients off of it and also pin your first hops to use only nodes you trust. your lokinet router's router contact (RC) can be found at /var/lib/lokinet/router/self.signed you can get the snode address of your lokinet-router using: # dig @127.0.0.1 -p 15533 -t cname localhost.loki +short additionally make a copy of the lokinet router's nodedb and copy it to your lokinet clients for ease of bootstrapping. # tar -cJvf lokinet-nodedb.tar.xz nodedb -C /var/lib/lokinet/router/ to run lokinet client on opennet: install lokinet package from deb.oxen.io # systemctl stop lokinet # cp your-lokinet-router-self.signed /var/lib/lokinet/opennet.signed # tar -xJvf lokinet-nodedb.tar.xz -C /var/lib/lokinet/ # mkdir -p /var/lib/lokinet/conf.d pick 4 lokinet routers on mainnet you trust that are not your bootstrap node and note their .snode address add the following to /var/lib/lokinet/conf.d/opennet.ini and start lokinet.service again, make sure to substitute the placeholder values. [router] netid=opennet [bootstrap] add-node=/var/lib/lokinet/opennet.signed [network] strict-connect=placeholder1.snode strict-connect=placeholder2.snode strict-connect=placeholder3.snode strict-connect=placeholder4.snode