Interplanetary Commerce

OS-level commercial primitives.

After the Machine War

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

Eliza

Building things, even Calm™ things, makes noise.

2020 -> 2021

Reflecting and looking forward.

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.

Input and Output in Hoon

Let's talk about IO in Urbit.

Metaphase

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

Security and Continuity

An update on our primary infrastructure milestones for 2020.

An Email from the Archive

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

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?

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).

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Value of Urbit Address Space (3 of 3)

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.

The Missing Middle

Urbit stars can facilitate a flexible continuum of community norms.

Tools of Our Own

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

Platform Decay, Decentralized Marketplaces, and Urbit

Urbit is calm computing. Calm commerce follows naturally.

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.

The Value of Urbit Address Space (2 of 3)

Scarcity, utility, liquidity, and network effect.

Infrastructural

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

The Value of Urbit Address Space (1 of 3)

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

The Understanding Urbit Podcast

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

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.

Precepts: Discussion

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

Precepts

Technical maxims that define Urbit's approach to engineering.

Urbit for Normies

A layperson’s guide to the coming new internet.

Creating Sigils

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

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.

Stable Arvo

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

Why Hoon?

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

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.

Urbit and Bitcoin

A sound money deserves a sound computer.

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.

~2019.10 Roadmap

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

Landscape: A Portrait

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

Announcing: Urbit Grants Program

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

Azimuth Security Bounty Program

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

Urbit Grants and mid-2019 Gifts

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

~2019.5 Roadmap

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

Azimuth as Multipass

What if everyone had a single 'civilizational key'?

The State of Landscape

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

The 100-Year Computer

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

A Founder's Farewell

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

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.

Governance of urbit.org

Stewardship of the Urbit Project.

Urbit and the Blockchain Wars

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

Bootstrapping Urbit from Ethereum

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

Toward a Frozen Operating System

Is it possible to freeze an entire OS?

Toward a New %clay

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

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.

Common Objections to Urbit

Some common objections to Urbit, discussed.

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?

Interim Constitution

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

Magic

A thought-experiment to explain the Urbit user experience.

The Urbit Address Space

An overview of Urbit's cryptographic address space.

An Urbit Overview

A high-level overview of Urbit.

Beliefs and Principles Guiding the Urbit Project

We believe.

What is Urbit For?

A vision of the Urbit-powered future.