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Thread to debunk some common Urbit myths:
0. Your Urbit OS does not run on a blockchain.
Only the address space ledger (who owns which Urbit address with what public key) and peer discovery DNS roots are stored on Ethereum. The Urbit OS is certainly not written in Solidity.
0. Your Urbit OS does not run on a blockchain.
Only the address space ledger (who owns which Urbit address with what public key) and peer discovery DNS roots are stored on Ethereum. The Urbit OS is certainly not written in Solidity.
1. Your Urbit OS is not a distributed system. It's a program you can run on a single MacOS or Linux machine, and it stores its state on that machine's disk.
Someday we'll also support Windows, BSD, etc. and it would be nice to turn it into a unikernel. It's just a program.
Someday we'll also support Windows, BSD, etc. and it would be nice to turn it into a unikernel. It's just a program.
2. Data you store in Urbit OS lives only on the machine running your Urbit OS. It is not distributed among multiple machines.
We will eventually support replicated event logs for redundancy, but this is not required. You could also use a RAID, ZFS, etc. or a normal disk.
We will eventually support replicated event logs for redundancy, but this is not required. You could also use a RAID, ZFS, etc. or a normal disk.
3. Messages from one Urbit to another do not usually go through infrastructure nodes (stars or galaxies). Even if they do, only the recipient can decrypt the message.
Stars and galaxies can relay messages for peer discovery and NAT traversal, but can't do deep packet inspection
Stars and galaxies can relay messages for peer discovery and NAT traversal, but can't do deep packet inspection
4. Infrastructure does not dictate social structure. Your star provides commoditized routing services. Membership in chats and other social groups should not care about which star you're under.
Stars are like ISPs. I'm on Verizon, you're on Comcast, not socially relevant.
Stars are like ISPs. I'm on Verizon, you're on Comcast, not socially relevant.
5. No one fully controls Urbit development. The galaxies (root nodes) can vote on upgrades to the constitution, which is an Ethereum contract.
The network governs itself. This puts skin in the game for galaxies, whose votes are public record on a blockchain.
The network governs itself. This puts skin in the game for galaxies, whose votes are public record on a blockchain.
6. You are not stuck under your star. You can always "escape": cancel its services and ask to pay another star to route to you. Stars can also escape to other galaxies.
There are over 65,000 potential stars to choose from, so it would be hard to be both abusive and profitable.
There are over 65,000 potential stars to choose from, so it would be hard to be both abusive and profitable.
7. You can run your Urbit OS on your laptop, a server in your closet, or a cloud service like AWS. Any of these are fine.
At any time, you can zip up the folder and move your Urbit OS from one of these to another. I've done this many times.
At any time, you can zip up the folder and move your Urbit OS from one of these to another. I've done this many times.
8. If your Urbit OS gets corrupted due to hardware failure or other reasons, you can still salvage your data and maintain your identity. This is called a "breach", and it's handled gracefully by Urbit's network and Ethereum ledger.
9. Urbit addresses will never run out.
They're all actually 128 bits, and 2^128 is practically infinite. Personal addresses are 32 bits because that's at least slightly scarce, which deters spam (Sybil attacks).
If needed, galaxies could vote to expand personal address space.
They're all actually 128 bits, and 2^128 is practically infinite. Personal addresses are 32 bits because that's at least slightly scarce, which deters spam (Sybil attacks).
If needed, galaxies could vote to expand personal address space.
10. The Urbit OS kernel will freeze ("Kelvin versioning"), but the rest of it will not. Crypto can always be upgraded, and you can always install new applications.
11. You do not need to write code to use Urbit. It serves a webapp, which is how I chat and blog on Urbit. Hooning is optional, not required.
There is also a command-line interface, which some people prefer. I use that for development.
There is also a command-line interface, which some people prefer. I use that for development.
12. Urbit is not vaporware. You can run it right now. All of this thread applies to present day, present time.
It's rough around the edges, but real. https://urbit.org/using/install/
It's rough around the edges, but real. https://urbit.org/using/install/
