Blog

Stories from the broader Urbit community, the Urbit Foundation, and the many people contributing to Urbit.


Subssembly Hackathon 2024

Use Login with Urbit ID in your app and win Urbit Stars


September 16, 2024

~sarlev-sarsen

Assembly Hackathon 2023

The Assembly 2023 Hackathon was the most successful Urbit Hackathon we've had. Get a taste of Demo Day in Lisbon and check out the projects they made.


December 5, 2023

Jack Wang

~tamlut-modnys

NockPU

A light technical description of NockPU, a hardware system for running Nock


August 2, 2023

Noah Kumin

~librex-dozryc

Ares

A light technical description of Ares, the new Urbit runtime


June 26, 2023

Noah Kumin

~librex-dozryc

A Perspective on Lisp and Hoon

Lisp is an éminence grise of programming. How does Hoon compare?


June 15, 2023

N E Davis

~lagrev-nocfep

Urbit's Open Source Culture, Part II

How will Urbit continue to foster its innovative open source software culture?


June 13, 2023

N E Davis

~lagrev-nocfep

Urbit's Open Source Culture, Part I

How did Urbit cultivate a unique open source software culture? Let's take a look at how we got to where we are today.


May 31, 2023

N E Davis

~lagrev-nocfep

Pin the Face that Launches a Thousand Ships

A guest post by ~nospex-larsut


April 7, 2023

~nospex-larsut

Using Urbit in 2023

There are more ways to run Urbit than ever, and more options coming soon.


February 6, 2023

Josh Lehman

~wolref-podlex

The Dream of the Agency DAO

As creative studios and agencies struggle for more creative freedom, DAOs and tokenization will surely take a more central role in the marketing and branding industries. Decentralization offers such entities benefits that could fundamentally reshape creatives’ relationships with clients—reducing layers of inefficiency and anti-creative incentives.


November 4, 2022

Isaac Simpson

~mogmet-tadnem

Urbit + Creator DAOs with Justin Murphy

Creator DAOs are blank slates, new foundational cryptographic patterns just beginning to take shape. Justin Murphy thinks Urbit is the most obvious place to start building one.


October 5, 2022

Isaac Simpson

~mogmet-tadnem

August Grants Program Review

The completion of the first cohort of Hoon School Live and the following App School Live program minted dozens of capable new Hoon developers. These developers are completing applications, closing out bounties, and putting together proposals at a rapid pace, with more to come as Assembly 2022 draws near.


August 30, 2022

~sarlev-sarsen

The Shape of DAO Governance to Come

When building the Combine DAO, we conducted a survey of DAO governance and tooling and came to the conclusion that the many theoretical approaches to the problem of governance were tied to the implementation details of the DAO stack. Since we were building everything on Urbit—as opposed to through the typical combination of Solidity contracts, Web2 tools and Snapshot—we realized that we’d have to do some rethinking. A new approach for a new stack.


August 17, 2022

Anthony Arroyo

~poldec-tonteg

The Smart Home of the Future

Homes are getting smarter. A smart home is no longer just a collection of smart devices but a superorganism of data-collecting objects. These people and devices who use and inhabit these homes form a complex socio-technical system. What is the future of the smart home and how will Urbit fit into it?


August 4, 2022

~pilwyc-fastec

Building Your DAO with Pseudonymous Reputation on Urbit

Using Urbit ID’s pseudonymous reputation model, DAO participants know Urbit ID holders’ past behavior before relying on them, and without sacrificing anonymity.


July 19, 2022

Anthony Arroyo

~poldec-tonteg

Introduction to the Combine DAO

Inside the mind of the Combine


July 1, 2022

Anthony Arroyo

~poldec-tonteg

Convivial Networks

Like the relationships that we build within them, our platforms should yield satisfaction precisely because they’re non-trivial; they demand effort, which is another way of saying they require engagement with the world.


May 27, 2022

~witwyt-widlyr

Desire Lines to a New Internet

As more DAOs, NFT and digital communities find their way to Urbit, others are likely to follow their paths, making them their own, just like the network itself.


May 6, 2022

~dalwes-migdec

Immunology for the Internet Age

A consideration of the history of the Internet motivates introspection on the nature and causes of social dysfunction in a globally shared space. Centralized solutions fail to yield satisfactory outcomes for human freedom and thriving. Decentralized autonomous organizations and their technological apparatus together represent the evolution of an immune system against a corporatized Internet.


April 7, 2022

~lagrev-nocfep

Layer 2 FAQ

Answers to all your lingering L2 questions.


March 1, 2022

Urbit Is for Creators

Urbit is for creators who are ready to wake up from this bad dream.


December 9, 2021

Noah Kumin

~librex-dozryc

Report from the field: Assembly 2021

The system builds the community and the community builds the system.


November 18, 2021

Galen Wolfe-Pauly

~ravmel-ropdyl

The Promise and Paradox of Decentralization

Is centralization just a natural tendency of all networks? Are we destined to have a 'decentralization sandwich?'


November 17, 2021

~lableg-tadrex

NFTs, Urbit IDs, and Communities w/ Haleek Maul

An interview with the founder of Holdersland


September 9, 2021

Matt

~tirwyd-sarmes

State of Urbit

A year in review


August 24, 2021

Galen Wolfe-Pauly

~ravmel-ropdyl

An Interview with UrbitHost

Interview with the founder of UrbitHost ~lavlyn-litmeg


August 19, 2021

Matt

~tirwyd-sarmes

On Christopher Alexander

An overview of his writing and relevance


July 19, 2021

Matt

~tirwyd-sarmes

A Topiary: Hypertext and Urbit

A brief history of hypertext and Urbit networking


June 13, 2021

Reid Scoggin

~sitful-hatred

Azimuth’s First Contract Upgrade

Galactic Senate makes first concrete action


June 4, 2021

Jonathan Paprocki and Mark

~datnut-pollen and ~palfun-foslup

The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis

How we're making Urbit ID affordable again


May 13, 2021

Jonathan Paprocki

~datnut-pollen

Community Spotlight: The Portico

Interview with The Portico founder Josh Reagan


May 3, 2021

Matt

~tirwyd-sarmes

Lunar Urbit and the Internet of Things

Potential future use cases of moons for industry and consumers


April 29, 2021

Jonathan Paprocki

~datnut-pollen

Interplanetary Commerce

OS-level commercial primitives.


April 8, 2021

Christian Langalis

~pindet-timmut

After the Machine War

The date is January 1, 2050. The place, New York City. The vibe...subdued.


March 14, 2021

Simon Kovacs

~bacbec-lormur

Eliza

Building things, even Calm™ things, makes noise.


February 22, 2021

Christian Langalis

~pindet-timmut

2020 -> 2021

Reflecting and looking forward.


January 20, 2021

Josh Lehman

~wolref-podlex

Ames Security Audit and the Future of the Protocol

Ames’ design has unparalleled potential to deter, mitigate, and recover from attacks, since every packet is authenticated and encrypted and backed by a stable, decentralized PKI.


December 17, 2020

Ted Blackman + Anthony Arroyo

~rovnys-ricfer + ~poldec-tonteg

Input and Output in Hoon

Let's talk about IO in Urbit.


December 15, 2020

Philip Monk

~wicdev-wisryt

Metaphase

On the upcoming and foregoing Landscape lifecycles, and other forms of mitosis across the Urbit project.


December 8, 2020

Matilde Park

~haddef-sigwen

Security and Continuity

An update on our primary infrastructure milestones for 2020.


November 30, 2020

Galen Wolfe-Pauly

~ravmel-ropdyl

An Email from the Archive

I found this email in my archives recently and thought it might be fun to share publicly.


November 29, 2020

Galen Wolfe-Pauly

~ravmel-ropdyl

Models of Society

Conversations compose society. What composes conversation — how do we digitize it in a way that enhances society without imposing upon it? How do we form this new medium, both to facilitate natural human behavior and to inspire the best of it?


November 18, 2020

Tyler Shuster

~radbur-sivmus

Aesthetic Culture #1

One of the most exciting things about Urbit is the aesthetic and design around it, developed partly by Tlon (through the design of Urbit itself) and partly by the community (by producing great Urbit art).


November 11, 2020

~nartes-fasrum

~nartes-fasrum

Urbit Events Series

These events are an opportunity for Urbit contributors to share real-time updates that don’t make it into this blog, and for the community to get to know the contributors (and one another).


October 29, 2020

Lane Rettig

~naplet-hildec

Hosting the Future

The way we see it, hosting is the most important thing, next to Landscape, that Tlon can do to help Urbit continue toward widespread adoption.


September 30, 2020

Nick Simmons

~simfur-ritwed

Late 2020 Progress Update: OS 1 -> OS 1.N

When we announced OS 1, in April, we started to disappear into Urbit. Since then, we’ve been living on Urbit like we never have before.


September 28, 2020

Galen Wolfe-Pauly

~ravmel-ropdyl

Gifts Q3 2020

Twice a year we distribute address space to those that have made valuable contributions to Urbit. Now called our Gifts program, the gifting of address space has been part of Urbit long before we had a grants program.


September 22, 2020

Josh Lehman

~wolref-podlex

Providers

We’ve always assumed that providers would have to come into existence sooner or later. By the look of it, that time is now. Tlon and a few others have provider-like services in the works.


August 17, 2020

Galen Wolfe-Pauly

~ravmel-ropdyl

First Steps Towards urbit.org

With a stable platform taking shape and a strong community forming that wants to help build Urbit, it’s time to make urbit.org real.


August 11, 2020

Josh Lehman

~wolref-podlex

Ford Fusion

Ford Fusion was an overhaul of Urbit's over-the-air upgrade process and a rewrite of its build system. The new update system corrects a few long-standing bugs with the previous one, and the new build system is simpler, smaller (by around 5,000 lines), and easier to manage.


July 14, 2020

Ted Blackman

~rovnys-ricfer

The Value of Urbit Address Space (3 of 3)


July 9, 2020

Erik Newton + Galen Wolfe-Pauly

~patnes-rigtyn + ~ravmel-ropdyl

Hackathon Results

We recently held an invite-only Urbit Hackathon for graduates of our Hoon School program, and the submissions really impressed us across the board. Submissions were judged on several criteria: creativity, usefulness, and code quality.


June 11, 2020

Robert Mariani

~lodleb-ritrul

The Missing Middle

Urbit stars can facilitate a flexible continuum of community norms.


May 25, 2020

Nicholas Simmons

~simfur-ritwed

Tools of Our Own

What is a digital environment? What does it mean to shape your own digital environment?


May 12, 2020

Matilde Park

~haddef-sigwen

Platform Decay, Decentralized Marketplaces, and Urbit

Urbit is calm computing. Calm commerce follows naturally.


May 7, 2020

Nicholas Simmons

~simfur-ritwed

Introducing OS 1

OS 1 is somewhere between ‘productivity software’ and a ‘social network’. We think it’s the beginning of an altogether new breed of social computing.


April 29, 2020

Galen Wolfe-Pauly

~ravmel-ropdyl

The Value of Urbit Address Space (2 of 3)

Scarcity, utility, liquidity, and network effect.


April 12, 2020

Erik Newton + Galen Wolfe-Pauly

~patnes-rigtyn + ~ravmel-ropdyl

Infrastructural

A reflection–meditation on OS 1’s initial form development, and the attitude we brought to bear in designing it.


April 9, 2020

É. Urcades

~fabled-faster

The Value of Urbit Address Space (1 of 3)

An expansion of our position on Urbit's address space value.


April 6, 2020

Erik Newton + Galen Wolfe-Pauly

~patnes-rigtyn + ~ravmel-ropdyl

The Understanding Urbit Podcast

An interview-based podcast series about the Urbit project, as told by those working on it.


April 2, 2020

Arthur Falls

~satsyt-sogleb

Urbit is for Communities

Urbit is for giving communities the tools to shape their own environments; for us all to feel a sense of life and self-directedness in the digital world.


March 22, 2020

Galen Wolfe-Pauly

~ravmel-ropdyl

Precepts: Discussion

The precepts aren’t arguments. We discuss and justify them here.


March 17, 2020

Philip Monk

~wicdev-wisryt

Precepts

Technical maxims that define Urbit's approach to engineering.


March 17, 2020

Philip Monk

~wicdev-wisryt

Urbit for Normies

A layperson’s guide to the coming new internet.


February 11, 2020

Erik Newton

~patnes-rigtyn

Creating Sigils

The origin and design process informing Urbit's generative user avatar system, Sigils.


February 3, 2020

Gavin Atkinson

~ridlur-figbud

Designing a Permanent Personal Identity

A public key infrastructure (PKI) is a system for binding a set of keys to a name. Sometimes a small amount of metadata is included.


November 26, 2019

Philip Monk

~wicdev-wisryt

Stable Arvo

This year we set out to get Arvo to a point that we can credibly call ‘stable.'


November 19, 2019

Anthony Arroyo

~poldec-tonteg

Why Hoon?

The promise of Urbit lies in its reimagination of the digital world using components that are as constrained and limited as possible.


November 13, 2019

Ted Blackman

~rovnys-ricfer

Simple, Durable, Yours

We built Urbit from scratch to be a system that’s simple, durable, and yours. Everything that computing today is not — but should be.


October 16, 2019

Urbit and Bitcoin

A sound money deserves a sound computer.


October 16, 2019

Christian Langalis

~pindet-timmut

Your Last Computer

Your Urbit is a simpler computer, a quieter computer, a more private computer. We want it to feel predictable, safe, and reliable — things only a complete, sealed system can do. This, we hope, can get us a world where technology keeps us connected, but doesn’t dominate our lives.


October 16, 2019

~2019.10 Roadmap

Galen Wolfe-Pauly on the road ahead for the identity/OS/interface/community stack.


October 2, 2019

Galen Wolfe-Pauly

~ravmel-ropdyl

Landscape: A Portrait

On the latest Urbit user interface, and the interfaces to come.


September 2, 2019

Matilde Park

~haddef-sigwen

Announcing: Urbit Grants Program

Announcing Urbit Grants, a way to earn stars through contributing.


August 5, 2019

Robert Mariani

~lodleb-ritrul

Azimuth Security Bounty Program

Inviting you (and your friends) to help us make Azimuth as secure as possible.


July 21, 2019

Anthony Arroyo

~poldec-tonteg

Urbit Grants and mid-2019 Gifts

Announcing an upcoming Urbit grants program and star gifts for Mid-2019.


June 9, 2019

Galen Wolfe-Pauly + Alex Matzner

~ravmel-ropdyl + ~mignyt-mogseb

~2019.5 Roadmap

Where we are and where we're going as of mid-2019.


May 15, 2019

Galen Wolfe-Pauly

~ravmel-ropdyl

Azimuth as Multipass

What if everyone had a single 'civilizational key'?


May 15, 2019

Galen Wolfe-Pauly

~ravmel-ropdyl

The State of Landscape

An update on the state of Landscape and the Urbit network.


May 15, 2019

Galen Wolfe-Pauly

~ravmel-ropdyl

The 100-Year Computer

One way to think about Urbit: as a "100-year computer."


May 13, 2019

Galen Wolfe-Pauly

~ravmel-ropdyl

A Founder's Farewell

My goal was always to fire myself at the first possible opportunity. I'm super happy to reach it.


January 13, 2019

Curtis Yarvin

~sorreg-namtyv

Azimuth is On-Chain

The Urbit address space, now called Azimuth, is on the blockchain. And too many other things to fit into a single post.


January 13, 2019

Galen Wolfe-Pauly

~ravmel-ropdyl

Governance of urbit.org

Stewardship of the Urbit Project.


January 10, 2019

Erik Newton

~patnes-rigtyn

Urbit and the Blockchain Wars

A bit about the 'idea maze' of choosing to bootstrap from Ethereum.


September 24, 2017

Curtis Yarvin

~sorreg-namtyv

Bootstrapping Urbit from Ethereum

We've decided to launch Urbit's constitution as a system of Ethereum contracts.


September 19, 2017

Curtis Yarvin + Galen Wolfe-Pauly

~sorreg-namtyv + ~ravmel-ropdyl

Toward a Frozen Operating System

Is it possible to freeze an entire OS?


May 9, 2017

Curtis Yarvin + Galen Wolfe-Pauly

~sorreg-namtyv + ~ravmel-ropdyl

Toward a New %clay

Urbit's revision-control system, %clay, is itself due for a (medium-sized) revision!


July 13, 2016

Curtis Yarvin

~sorreg-namtyv

Why Urbit Probably Doesn't Need a Blockchain

Urbit (probably) doesn't need a blockchain, because the Urbit address-space PKI is a special case of a consensus ledger.


July 13, 2016

Curtis Yarvin

~sorreg-namtyv

Common Objections to Urbit

Some common objections to Urbit, discussed.


June 27, 2016

Curtis Yarvin

~sorreg-namtyv

The DAO as a Lesson in Decentralized Governance

What's the right lesson for the decentralization community to learn from the collapse of the DAO?


June 23, 2016

Curtis Yarvin

~sorreg-namtyv

Interim Constitution

The governing rules for the early days of the Urbit network.


May 15, 2016

Tlon

Magic

A thought-experiment to explain the Urbit user experience.


May 15, 2016

Curtis Yarvin

~sorreg-namtyv

The Urbit Address Space

An overview of Urbit's cryptographic address space.


May 15, 2016

Galen Wolfe-Pauly + Curtis Yarvin

~ravmel-ropdyl + ~sorreg-namtyv

An Urbit Overview

A high-level overview of Urbit.


May 10, 2016

Galen Wolfe-Pauly

~ravmel-ropdyl

Beliefs and Principles Guiding the Urbit Project

We believe.


May 10, 2016

Curtis Yarvin + Galen Wolfe-Pauly

~sorreg-namtyv + ~ravmel-ropdyl

What is Urbit For?

A vision of the Urbit-powered future.


May 10, 2016

Galen Wolfe-Pauly

~ravmel-ropdyl