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:


[this guide needs to be redone please come bavk later]

install lokinet package from deb.oxen.io

# wget https://lokinet.io/opennet.signed -O /var/lib/lokinet/opennet.signed
# touch /var/lib/lokinet/lokinet.ini
# mkdir -p /etc/systemd/system/lokinet.service.d/

then put into /etc/systemd/system/lokinet.service.d/override.conf

[Service]
ExecStart=
ExecStart=/usr/bin/lokinet -r /var/lib/lokinet/opennet/lokinet.ini



then... systemctl daemon-reload
then...

add the following to /var/lib/lokinet/opennet/lokinet.ini and restart lokinet.service


[router]
netid=opennet

[dns]
bind=127.0.0.1:15533

[lokid]
enabled=false

[bootstrap]
add-node=/var/lib/lokinet/opennet/opennet.signed


if you do not have a public ip on one of your network interfaces add another file /var/lib/lokinet/opennet/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/opennet/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/opennet/

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