Urbit project, which its inventors describe as a "city in the cloud", collected in four hours the sale of more than 200 thousand dollars. Although kriptosoobschestvo not be surprised successful Closeouts, Urbit managed to interest influential venture capitalists and technology leaders such as Ben Davenport (Ben Davenport) from BitGo, Balaji Srinivasan (Balaji Srinivasan) from 21 Inc. Morcos and Alex (Alex Morcos) of Chaincode Labs.
The platform, which is developing a startup Tlon, really stands out, though few outside the technological elite can boast that he understood what it meant. According to Järvinen Curtis (Curtis Yarvin), technical director and inventor Tlon Urbit, "if Bitcoin - a digital money, Urbit - a digital earth".
goal
The problem is that they want to solve the founders Urbit, - it is the dependence of Internet users from the server, they do not control. Internet was developed as a peer, but now most people use it to connect to Facebook, Gmail, Reddit and other centralized services. This means that users lose control of their data, programs, and even identity, giving it a giant corporations.
Tlon creators depict a future where users will have their own cloud-based computers and to interact directly with each other. In a sense, a return to the original spirit of the Internet.
In an interview with the executive director of Bitcoin Magazine Tlon Galen Wolfe-Pauly (Galen Wolfe-Pauly) said:
"The Internet has degenerated into a client-server architecture - in fact, the digital modem. Attempts to rectify the situation, as a rule, assume that you need to re-decentralize the Internet itself, but we do not think that this will solve the problem. The Internet is already here and is not going to change, so we want to create a new Internet over an existing one. "
In Urbit users will have their own personal cloud server, which can be used for storing data, the implementation of programs, to connect to other users, etc. -.. Almost all, what cloud computers are used today. Urbit runs on Unix, which can be rented in the existing clouds, such as Amazon Web Services, but, as the developers say, unlike Unix, Urbit ever be able to use even the ordinary people, not just geeks.
Technology
Urbit not make the existing online platform, save all the original complexity of the Unix world, it is easier - instead he deploys on top of it a new platform designed from the ground up.
As Jarvinen said,
"We propose to replace the current infrastructure, creating over her new unified compute layer. You can think of it as the equivalent of a server browser, which replaced the original client OS "sandboxes" Javascript. "
Stack Urbit consists of a virtual machine Nock, typed functional language Hoon and functional NOS Arvo, who is also a database. From the XX century programming can be found in the Unicode Urbit only some cryptographic algorithms.
As he admits Järvinen, the development of all these components from scratch seems to many programmers inefficient and irrational idea, but he had a good reason:
"If ordinary people can not control their computers due to the complexity of the legacy, the shortest way to solving the problem - this is a simplification of technology. Urbit entire stack, including applications, - it is only 30 thousand lines of code. "
address space
An important place in Urbit architecture takes the hierarchical structure of address spaces, which are also used for routing. These addresses - which Urbit called "ships" (ships), - represent something in between the IP-addresses, domain names and personal pseudonyms.
Ships have "tiers" (tiers), bearing the names of various astronomical objects. 8-bit galaxy form the top level of the network infrastructure and have administrative functions. 16-bit star also belong to the infrastructure level, but secondary. 32-bit planet - it is the individual level; they are conceived as human identity. Finally, 64-bit clients are satellites, robots, or attached devices.
Wolf Pauli explained:
"Initially Urbit with its 256 galaxies centralized, but he is committed to decentralization. Each tier ships signed an initial key for the lower tier. Further, each key signs own updates, creating a certificate chain. As a single bitcoin, the ship - a cryptographic asset that can be transferred to another owner, but, unlike bitcoins, the ships are not interchangeable, so that they can not sell in the current markets. As with real estate, Urbit very illiquid and are not suitable for short-term trading. "
This structure provides a digital deficit, which, according to Urbit creators needs to add value namespaces, which in turn provides protection against spam and other abuses: no one wants to be the address has been blocked by other Urbit users, because then it will become less valuable.
Sale
Due to the limited address space Tlon can attract money to finance the development platform. Recently, the project has sold 1.6% of the stars in more than 200 thousand dollars.
"Imagine that you are creating the Internet, - explained Järvinen. - But the court in 2016, and by DARPA money you do not have. What to do? You can put up for sale blocks IP-addresses, presenting them as cryptographic assets. In fact, a network in which addresses are considered to be deficient cryptographic property, in many respects, is much better than traditional networks. "
Although yet Urbit is centralized and all his galaxy is, in fact, belong to Tlon, it is assumed that galaxies and stars in the future will become independent and self-governing. The owners of the ships will be able to determine the policy and the future of "digital cities" by voting in a system with a confirmation of ownership.
Fantasy and development plans Urbit can not fail to impress, but as they themselves admit, the work is still very much. In fact, to make Urbit useful for people who need a lot of time and experimentation, so that the project's success is not guaranteed: Urbit efforts can be crowned as the creators of the brilliant triumph, and a complete failure.
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