Urbit

WHAT URBIT IS AND WHAT IT DOES

Urbit is a new OS and peer-to-peer network that’s simple by design, built to last forever, and 100% owned by its users. Under the hood, Urbit is a clean-slate software stack compact enough that an individual developer can understand and control it completely. The goal of Urbit is to make peer-to-peer software easy for developers to write and for users to run on their own. The code is completely open source, actively maintained, supported by a growing ecosystem, and used daily by thousands.

Urbit consists of two high-level components: an operating system (Urbit OS) and an identity system (Urbit ID). Urbit OS enables its user to communicate directly with others using Urbit OS via their Urbit ID's. You can think of these like phone numbers — meaningless but memorizable, and likely to identify the same person reliably through time.

Using Urbit requires having access to a running ship: an Urbit OS running with a supplied Urbit ID.  You can run Urbit yourself if you're comfortable at a command-line or willing to learn. Otherwise you should probably use a hosting provider — that is, someone that provides you with an Urbit as a service. Cultur3 Stake currently acts as one such a hosting provider.

WHAT PROBLEMS URBIT ADDRESSES

Urbit thinks that the internet, as it is structured today, can’t be saved. In Urbit's view, massive, profit-focus organizations or MEGACORPs will always control our digital apps and services because we can no longer run these digital apps and services ourselves. While changing from centralized to decentralized apps and services is a step forward, Urbit proposes an entirely different platform that’s owned and controlled by its users.

Unlike other decentralized solutions today, Ubrit gives people a single integrated tool for communicating and building communities – a tool they can trust, control, and extend to their liking. Urbit wants to do away with the terrible user experience of the current ‘frankenstack’ of apps and services that we all use today.