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The topic of this article may not meet Misplaced Pages's general notability guideline. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. Find sources: "Urbit" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Urbit is a decentralized personal server platform comprised of a set of programming languages ("Hoon," a high-level functional programming language, and "Nock," its low-level compiled language); a single-function operating system built on those languages ("Arvo"); a personal address space, built on the Ethereum blockchain, for each instance of the operating system to participate in a decentralized network ("Azimuth"); and the decentralized network itself, an encrypted, peer-to-peer protocol running on top of the User Datagram Protocol.

The Urbit platform was conceived and first developed in 2002 by Curtis Yarvin, and is currently developed by its parent company, the Tlon Corporation, which Yarvin founded in 2013. The company has received seed funding from various investors since its inception, most notably Peter Thiel, whose Founders Fund, with venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz invested $1.1 million in 2013.

The aim of the Urbit platform is to "reboot computing" by rewriting the underlying software stack of client computers; as well as the communication protocols that exist between client and server machines. In doing so, the platform aims to distribute the client-server relationship across all computers on the network, circumventing the possibility of centralized control by large corporations. In addition to this goal, Urbit seeks to provide a permanent address space for each instance on the network.

The platform is known for being complicated and obscure, as a consequence of its approaches. It is also mired in controversy due to the opinions of its creator, Curtis Yarvin, and his association with the Dark Enlightenment.

Controversy

Yarvin's reputation has resulted in Urbit's considerable controversy at public events and conferences, most notably at LambdaConf 2016, when Yarvin's inclusion at the event resulted in five speakers and three sponsors withdrawing their participation in response. Yarvin had previously had his invitation to the 2015 Strange Loop conference rescinded, with the conference's organizer noting that "his mere inclusion and/or presence would overshadow the content of his talk".

After seventeen years of working on the Urbit project, Yarvin departed Tlon in 2019.

References

1. Wolfe, Alexandra (2017). Valley of the Gods: A Silicon Valley Story. Simon and Schuster. p. 219. ISBN 9781476778945.
2. Yarvin, Curtis; Philip, Monk; Dyudin, Anton; Pasco, Raymond (May 26, 2016). "Urbit: A Solid-State Interpreter" (PDF). Tlon Corporation. Retrieved June 13, 2019. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
3. ^ Lecher, Colin (2017-02-21). "Alt-right darling Mencius Moldbug wanted to destroy democracy. Now he wants to sell you web services". The Verge. Retrieved 2019-06-14.
4. Pein, Corey (2018). "Poor Winners". Live Work Work Work Die: A Journey into the Savage Heart of Silicon Valley. New York: Metropolitan Books. ISBN 9781627794862.
5. ^ O'Sullivan, Andrea (2016-06-21). "Can Urbit Reboot Computing?". Reason.com. Retrieved 2019-06-14. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
6. Townsend, Tess (2016-03-31). "Controversy Rages Over 'Pro-Slavery' Tech Speaker Curtis Yarvin". Inc.com. Retrieved 2019-06-14.
7. Auerbach, David (2015-06-10). "When All It Takes to Be Booted From a Tech Conference Is Being a "Distraction," We Have a Problem". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2019-06-14.
8. "A Founder's Farewell". Urbit.org. January 14, 2019. Retrieved June 13, 2019. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |dead-url= and |note= (help)

External links

• https://urbit.org
• https://tlon.io

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