OXEN - the most unique monero fork with a functioning product? Microcap. Development is steady. Launched as PoW in 2018 but has transitioned to PoS. Not wild on that, but might be good to hedge bets. Staking offers an attractive return mostly fueled by being rewarded a chunk of new emission in exchange for locking up supply - fairly standard, right?
Here's where it starts to get interesting.
Oxen is the token behind two unique, working-today privacy applications: Session and Lokinet.
Session is a signal-alternative that is entirely decentralized with messages being processed by the nodes that are staking oxen! It has a desktop app and is on mobile as well. Somewhat buggy on my phone at times, but works today and development is continuously improving. They have voice calls in beta right now almost ready for release, for example. Group chats can be formed. Disappearing messages, media can be sent etc.
Lokinet is a VPN-alternative service. I need to look more into it, but it does work. You can pick different "Exit nodes" similar to tor and use it to either browse lokinet, ".loki" sites that are only accessible on Lokinet similar to .onion addresses that are only available on TOR, or you can browse the so-called "Clearnet", or normal internet. Your data and requests are encrypted and hopped between several nodes such that your exit node does not know your origin IP.
This is incredibly interesting to me because TOR, while around for a long time and functional, relies on altruism for their node infrastructure (i.e. they rely on people running exit nodes out of the goodness of their own heart at a loss, essentially) - I think it is completely unsurprising then that TOR has historically and continuously suffered from malicious-exit-node-related attacks. With Lokinet, but financially incentivizing good behavior and potentially punishing bad, it will hopefully lead to less attacks along this vector.
Currently, starting a node requires staking 15,000 oxen, or $9000 at current writing. However, you can use rented hardware for $10-15/month and this is suitable specifications for the node, and it will generate ~200 oxen/month - meaning the return far outweighs the operations cost. Yes, $9000 is high but this is only for FULL node operators. Users may group up with up to 3 others including the operator and split up their contributions to the 15,000 reward. The node operator who maintains (or pays for) the hardware usually takes a 5-15% premium on the rewards to pay for the operations cost. This premium is subject to market demands and fluctuates as it is set by the operator upon node creation. But someone with only $900 for example could still find a node to contribute to and instead make ~20 oxen/month so node participation does not price many people out unlike many other projects. The development team has adjusted this 15,000 oxen amount in the past and, I assume, if Oxen were to go to new highs they would lower the contribution amount. This is interesting because it means someone with 1 node now could end up in a future where they have enough oxen to run 2 nodes. This can occur over time naturally even without node staking requirement changes, i.e. 15,000 oxen will be accrued via rewards over a ~6.2 year period anyways.
With all variables frozen, a $9000 node (15k oxen) run solo would cost you around $120-180 per year (hosted/rented) or potentially less if you maintain your own physical system, but yield ~2400 Oxen for a USD value of $1440. $1440/$9180 = ~15% annual return if you sold all your rewards. "With all variables frozen" is an incredibly important, and unrealistic, expectation for the future as number of stakers and price per coin will undoubtedly fluctuate considerably over the course of a year, but this still provides a basis for which to compare the return compared to other traditional investments. Other hidden fees in this example that aren't included are network fees on the oxen chain (currently so low they are negligible) and exchange trading fees if you are forced to sell through a centralized party (could add up but likely still <$20).
Node operators and contributors do have the ability to sell rewards as they get them, which is an important consideration when factoring in future price performance.
I have used both Session and Loki personally and I'm impressed. It's astonishing to see dozens if not hundreds of crypto projects with shittier products, or even no functional product, with 10x the market-cap of Oxen. I don't think this can last.
My one major complaint: oxen itself needs more utility to attract/maintain value over time. Currently you need it to run a node and the rewards are attractive, far outpacing the server costs necessary even when paying for hosting. However, as a user, Oxen is really only used to either reserve a unique username on Session, or "buy" a ".lokinet" domain from the network by burning a set amount of oxen based on how long you wish for the domain to remain active/in your control. It can also be used to generate a vanity address.
The rates are currently quite cheap on the so-called "Oxen Name Service":
Session ID: 7 OXEN
Wallet Address: 7 OXEN
Lokinet Name 1 year: 7 OXEN
Lokinet Name 2 years: 14 OXEN
Lokinet Name 5 years: 28 OXEN
Lokinet Name 10 years: 42 OXEN
Considering 42 oxen at current price is $25-26 bucks coming out to ~$2.55 annually at the time of writing, this is all relatively affordable. The interesting part is when you purchase these name services, you don't pay a node operator - the oxen is burnt and removed from the circulating supply. The goal of the project from a macroeconomic standpoint is to have enough users such that the burning from name services can offset or even outpace the emissions produced by the network. I think this goal is ambitious, which is why my "One major complaint" is that oxen needs some more utility.
But this project is on the right track IMO, and oxen @ $4.50 would mean a ~250 million mcap which is modest by crypto standards especially considering the inflationary environment the USD is experiencing. It will be interesting to track this one. There isn't many PoS projects that are focused on privacy, and the volume especially looks interesting as it used to be <100k for months and suddenly has gone up to 500k+ since March 23rd. I smell a market-maker.
Let me know what you think of oxen in the comments, and I hope you enjoyed this write-up. If you did, please consider giving a follow, thumbs up, or share with someone. It would mean a lot to me :)
(Not financial advice and all that.)
