Lokinet contributors share insights into the ongoing rewrite process.
The Lokinet rewrite has been an evolving saga. What started as a simple wire protocol redux has developed into a full engine swap. Near-everything has been redone and reimplemented, from the event loop to the wire protocol to the platform layer.
Efficiency. Reliability. Speed.
The pillars of the rewrite, the core tenets of the new ontology, the north stars of this expedition. From the ground up, Lokinet is rebuilt on a solid foundation, only taking the next step when stablefooting is secured.
Efficiency: Startup. Connect. Perform. Sub-second to go from 0 to 60, another sub second until sessions up and running. The drastically distilled architecture is more efficiently configured, allowing users to plug-and-play or configure to their hearts content. Choose your own adventure -- you can use your old configs, but you won't want to.
Reliability: The rewrite has been a considerable investment of resources, but for good reason. Step by step, but not a step further until stable footing is secured. Libquic was built to provide low-overhead, high-speed QUIC connectivity for lokinet relays. As a result, every Lokinet relay is full-mesh, all the time. This ensures both client and relay operators' requests are routed correctly, quietly, and securely. Like a drop landing in the ocean, once your data enters the network, it is the network.
Speed: Session data is transmitted client-to-client with drastically reduced latency. More importantly, Lokinet will do it again. And again. And again. Ping flood testing (DDoS testing) over aligned paths logged <5ms deviation 9 onion-hops down and back, with not a single packet lost.
Lokinet is in an extremely strong position as we round out the year. With the core protocol slinging packets like they're hotcakes, there's a bit of platform code to rework and an embedded library that needs to wrap the new API. From running the Session messenger to powering the soon-to-be-launched Session Token, Lokinet has a bright future.