Our intention is to use Monero as a proven and solid basis to build an additional feature set that goes beyond anonymous payment systems. Loki is simply harnessing the ideas presented in Monero and using them in a way that we believe sits outside the current scope of the Monero project.

Loki integrates a hybrid proof of work / proof of service system offers a unique way to financially incentivize the operation of full nodes. Loki leverages these incentivized nodes to create a secondary network of privacy focused services. On this network we can build Service Node Applications (SNapps) to reliably store and serve private messages. The Loki Messenger will be the first SNapp on the Loki network.

Please read the white paper at https://loki.network when you get a chance.