diff --git a/js/modules/loki_message_api.js b/js/modules/loki_message_api.js
index e75341e82..e608f8b4d 100644
--- a/js/modules/loki_message_api.js
+++ b/js/modules/loki_message_api.js
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 const fetch = require('node-fetch');
 const is = require('@sindresorhus/is');
+const { fork } = require('child_process');
 
 module.exports = {
   initialize,
@@ -19,8 +20,49 @@ function initialize({ url }) {
       sendMessage
     };
 
-    async function sendMessage(pub_key, data, ttl)
-    {
+    function getPoWNonce(timestamp, ttl, pub_key, data) {
+      return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
+        // Create forked node process to calculate PoW without blocking main process
+        const child = fork('./libloki/proof-of-work.js');
+
+        // Send data required for PoW to child process
+        child.send({
+          timestamp,
+          ttl,
+          pub_key,
+          data
+        });
+
+        // Handle child process error (should never happen)
+        child.on('error', (err) => {
+          reject(err);
+        });
+
+        // Callback to receive PoW result
+        child.on('message', (msg) => {
+          if (msg.err) {
+            reject(msg.err);
+          } else {
+            child.kill();
+            resolve(msg.nonce);
+          }
+        });
+
+      });
+    };
+
+    async function sendMessage(pub_key, data, ttl) {
+      const timestamp = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000);
+      // Nonce is returned as a base64 string to include in header
+      let nonce;
+      try {
+        nonce = await getPoWNonce(timestamp, ttl, pub_key, data);
+      } catch(err) {
+        // Something went horribly wrong
+        // TODO: Handle gracefully
+        console.log("Error computing PoW");
+      };
+
       const options = {
         url: `${url}/send_message`,
         type: 'POST',
@@ -30,12 +72,13 @@ function initialize({ url }) {
         
       log.info(options.type, options.url);
 
-
       const fetchOptions = {
         method: options.type,
         body: data,
         headers: {
-          'X-Loki-ttl': ttl,
+          'X-Loki-pow-nonce': nonce,
+          'X-Loki-timestamp': timestamp.toString(),
+          'X-Loki-ttl': ttl.toString(),
           'X-Loki-recipient': pub_key,
           'Content-Length': data.byteLength,
         },
@@ -74,7 +117,7 @@ function initialize({ url }) {
           result
         );
       }
-    }
+    };
   }
 }
 
diff --git a/libloki/proof-of-work.js b/libloki/proof-of-work.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e423efce1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/libloki/proof-of-work.js
@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+const hash = require('js-sha512');
+const bb = require('bytebuffer');
+
+// Increment Uint8Array nonce by 1 with carrying
+function incrementNonce(nonce) {
+  let idx = nonce.length - 1;
+  nonce[idx] += 1;
+  // Nonce will just reset to 0 if all values are 255 causing infinite loop, should never happen
+  while (nonce[idx] == 0 && idx >= 0) {
+    nonce[--idx] += 1;
+  }
+  return nonce;
+}
+
+// Convert a Uint8Array to a base64 string
+function bufferToBase64(buf) {
+  let binstr = Array.prototype.map.call(buf, function (ch) {
+      return String.fromCharCode(ch);
+  }).join('');
+  return bb.btoa(binstr);
+}
+
+// Convert javascript number to Uint8Array of length 8
+function numberToUintArr(numberVal) {
+  let arr = new Uint8Array(8);
+  for (let idx = 7; idx >= 0; idx--) {
+    let n = 8 - (idx + 1);
+    // 256 ** n is the value of one bit in arr[idx], modulus to carry over
+    arr[idx] = (numberVal / 256**n) % 256;
+  }
+  return arr;
+}
+
+// Return nonce that hashes together with payload lower than the target
+function calcPoW(timestamp, ttl, pub_key, data) {
+  const leadingString = timestamp.toString() + ttl.toString() + pub_key;
+  const leadingArray = new Uint8Array(bb.wrap(leadingString, 'binary').toArrayBuffer());
+  // Payload constructed from concatenating timestamp, ttl and pubkey strings, converting to Uint8Array
+  // and then appending to the message data array
+  const payload = leadingArray + data;
+  const nonceLen = 8;
+  // Modify this value for difficulty scaling
+  // TODO: Have more informed reason for setting this to 100
+  const nonceTrialsPerByte = 1000;
+  let nonce = new Uint8Array(nonceLen);
+  let trialValue = numberToUintArr(Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER);
+  // Target is converter to Uint8Array for simple comparison with trialValue
+  const target = numberToUintArr(Math.floor(Math.pow(2, 64) / (
+    nonceTrialsPerByte * (
+      payload.length + nonceLen + (
+        (ttl * ( payload.length + nonceLen ))
+        / Math.pow(2, 16)
+      )
+    )
+  )));
+  const initialHash = new Uint8Array(bb.wrap(hash(payload), 'hex').toArrayBuffer());
+  while (trialValue > target) {
+    nonce = incrementNonce(nonce);
+    trialValue = (new Uint8Array(bb.wrap(hash(nonce + initialHash), 'hex').toArrayBuffer())).slice(0, 8);
+  }
+  return bufferToBase64(nonce);
+}
+
+// Start calculation in child process when main process sends message data
+process.on('message', (msg) => {
+	process.send({nonce: calcPoW(msg.timestamp, msg.ttl, msg.pub_key, msg.data)});
+});
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 4d9720e8b..27e846a63 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@
     "blueimp-canvas-to-blob": "^3.14.0",
     "blueimp-load-image": "^2.18.0",
     "bunyan": "^1.8.12",
+    "bytebuffer": "^5.0.1",
     "classnames": "^2.2.5",
     "config": "^1.28.1",
     "electron-editor-context-menu": "^1.1.1",
@@ -68,6 +69,7 @@
     "got": "^8.2.0",
     "intl-tel-input": "^12.1.15",
     "jquery": "^3.3.1",
+    "js-sha512": "^0.8.0",
     "linkify-it": "^2.0.3",
     "lodash": "^4.17.4",
     "mkdirp": "^0.5.1",