diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index a59abbd36..781a8ae8f 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -276,10 +276,6 @@ if(SUBMODULE_CHECK)
   endif()
 endif()
 
-add_subdirectory(external/loki-mq)
-include_directories(external/loki-mq)
-include_directories(external/loki-mq/mapbox-variant/include)
-
 # We only actually need pybind11 with WITH_HIVE, but if we don't load it here then something further
 # down loads a broken PythonInterp that loads Python2, but Python2 headers are not C++17 compatible.
 # So load this here universally so that pybind's more intelligent python finder finds python3.x
diff --git a/llarp/router/router.cpp b/llarp/router/router.cpp
index 5753e1129..9e3d05823 100644
--- a/llarp/router/router.cpp
+++ b/llarp/router/router.cpp
@@ -849,6 +849,7 @@ namespace llarp
       {
         rpcBindAddr = DefaultRPCBindAddr;
       }
+<<<<<<< HEAD
       // older configs just specify an ip/port tuple so check for that and prepend tcp:// in that
       // case
       if (rpcBindAddr.find("tcp://") == std::string::npos
@@ -859,6 +860,10 @@ namespace llarp
       }
       m_RPCServer->AsyncServeRPC(rpcBindAddr);
       LogInfo("Bound RPC server to ", rpcBindAddr);
+=======
+      // TODO: set up rpc server
+      // LogInfo("Bound RPC server to ", rpcBindAddr);
+>>>>>>> initial working code
     }
 
     return true;
diff --git a/llarp/rpc/lokid_rpc_client.hpp b/llarp/rpc/lokid_rpc_client.hpp
index e3b7c97cf..b69f7482b 100644
--- a/llarp/rpc/lokid_rpc_client.hpp
+++ b/llarp/rpc/lokid_rpc_client.hpp
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 #include <router_id.hpp>
 
 #include <lokimq/lokimq.h>
+#include <crypto/types.hpp>
 
 #include <crypto/types.hpp>
 
@@ -23,6 +24,10 @@ namespace llarp
       void
       ConnectAsync(std::string_view url);
 
+      /// blocking request identity key from lokid
+      std::optional<SecretKey>
+      ObtainIdentityKey();
+
      private:
       /// called when we have connected to lokid via lokimq
       void