Welcome, Crypto Dummies!
If you’re stumbling here for the first time, this substack focuses on educating those that know nothing about crypto and blockchain technology.
If that’s you then you’re in the right place!
Our goal is to educate everyone on what opportunities exist with the introduction of blockchain technology and to explore some of the remarkable projects that have already been launched.
We’ve covered many different topics here, from the basics of Ethereum to the introduction of other side chains.
Today we’re going to introduce a protocol that is certainly a game-changer and can be a little difficult to grasp, but not to worry! We’re here to break it down for all the crypto dummies out there.
Let’s get started on our introduction to Urbit.
What is Urbit?
To put it simply, Urbit is a personal O.S. (Operating system) designed to run peer-to-peer applications.
Megacorporations have complete control over the applications and services we use.
So how do we break the cycle?
By introducing a completely new platform, owned and controlled by the users.
Urbit is a brand new operating system, peer-to-peer network, and clean slate software stack that is compact enough for an individual developer to understand and control completely.
Behind Urbit there are 2 key pieces to understand, Urbit OS and Urbit ID.
Urbit OS
Urbit OS is a virtual machine, programming language, and kernel that was specifically designed to run software for an individual.
The OS runs on almost any cloud server, a majority of laptops, smartphones, and anything with Unix and an internet connection.
Urbit OS is known by the team as an Overlay OS, the foundation is a single, simple function. The Urbit OS Virtual Machine. Similar to Javascript Virtual Machine, it is a uniform machine code for every Urbit Ship.
Urbit Ships can be one of 5 classes:
comets (disposable identities)
moons (connected devices subordinated to a ship)
planets (individual users)
stars (network infrastructure nodes)
galaxy (another version of network infrastructure nodes)
The Urbit OS Virtual Machine (AKA Nock) is a protocol for computing itself, any two nodes on the network can easily share data and communicate and connect their software. The team has built a self-hosting functional programming language for a filesystem, build system, application sandbox, secret storage, web server, terminal driver, and a network protocol.
Urbit ID
What is an Urbit ID?
Urbit ID is a decentralized addressing and public key infrastructure that was designed for Urbit OS.
An Urbit ID is a short 4 syllable name that users own with an 8 syllable master passkey.
ex: ~melvar-dorply (Urbit ID),
~funlap-lupso-lynpa-labfus(Master Passkey)
This passkey and ID give you access to the Urbit OS and are simultaneously used to encrypt packets sent over to the Urbit network. The team behind Urbit has also announced that shortly it will also function as a wallet to send and hold BTC and other cryptocurrencies.
An Urbit ID, at its core, is essentially just a number. The name is derived from the number and given a visually identifiable sigil.
Urbit IDs are distributed through a sponsorship tree. We mentioned galaxies, stars, planets, and moons earlier, but how exactly does that tie into this?
At the top of the tree are the galaxies (256 galaxies). Each galaxy issues 2^8 stars (65k stars). Each star can issue 2^16 planets (~4 Billion planets), and each planet can issue 2^32 moons.
Urbit IDs are digital property, think of this as a civilization key. It’s a unique beautiful object that serves as both a wallet and an address.
Oh and by the way it’s an NFT.
There are only 4 billion Urbit IDs, currently, they’re deployed on the Ethereum blockchain, and planets can be purchased directly through Urbit or on a secondary market like Opensea.
Urbit IDs are distributed via a sponsorship tree, each sponsor issues a fixed number of addresses (or planets). Once you own a planet, it’s yours forever. Sponsors(or galaxies) can change, you can move to a different galaxy, or a galaxy can reject you.
This creates a balance within the network, bad actors can be banned, and abusive sponsors ignored.
Galaxies also hold the key to governance. Since they sit at the top of the sponsorship tree, they form a government of peers to vote on upgrading the logic of the Urbit ID system.
The ultimate goal
Urbit was introduced as means to deliver a better user experience. At its core, Urbit OS is simply a new layer for personal computing on the cloud. What this new layer unlocks is the key.
Through the Urbit OS, building a completely unified interface for peers to compute on the cloud is within arms reach.
We live in a day and age where everyone owns a smartphone or a computer. Our lives are connected wirelessly but the ownership and privacy are in the hands of the big corporations that provide us a platform to do so.
Urbit OS was built to break the hold big corporations have over the individual user. Making the server-side usable for individuals without the need for the big corporations to run their software.
What an amazing write up. I am Immediately going to check this out. I want it badly
Great post, I'll have to check this out