This post is part of a series exploring how Uqbar will transform Web3. For a more generalized introduction to Uqbar, click here. For a technical overview, explore our clearpaper here.
While we have already discussed the connection between Uqbar, our ground-breaking crypto OS, and Urbit, the peer-to-peer network upon which Uqbar is built, welcome to a deeper dive into the vibrant virtual ecosystem their complex relationship enables.
What is Urbit?
Urbit is a fully functional distributed peer-to-peer network and operating system. More importantly, Urbit proposes a thoroughly reimagined version of the Internet — one that transfers power from third-party corporations to the hands of regular users.
Urbit is designed to offer you full ownership of your personal data as well as the ability to participate in exactly the web activity you desire, no more and no less. All protocols on Urbit’s network are both permissionless and optional, meaning you can freely utilize any public service on the network, customize those services to match your individual needs, and discard any unnecessary features you’d rather do without. For programmers, this optionality offers a development ecosystem ripe for creativity and customization. For the average user, Urbit promises a secure, simple, unified internet headquarters with both enhanced privacy and optimal functionality.
What Makes Urbit Special?
The idea of a large-scale peer-to-peer network is not new. Before Urbit, however, it was impossible to imagine a distributed network with sufficient power, scope, and flexibility, or one that was not beholden to the complex and lumbering Unix/Internet stack.
The dream of a secure, decentralized Internet is a powerful one, and Urbit utilizes a host of technical innovations to realize this vision.
Nonfungible Identities
A key component of the decentralized revolution is Urbit’s nonfungible identity system.
In order to interact with the Urbit network, a user must own an Urbit ID, or planet, also represented by an NFT. While purchasing and activating a planet is relatively simple, the scarce and permanent nature of Urbit IDs make a user’s identity valuable, increasing both security and computational efficiency through powerful reputational economics. As it is no longer trivially easy to replace one’s identity, the Urbit ID system incentivizes good behavior from both individuals and network nodes, discouraging spam, Sybil attacks, and phishing.
Furthermore, the permanent nature of Urbit IDs means individuals can build a unique and durable personal brand. This identity continuity is an essential feature for many of the most potent applications of blockchain technology, including credit protocols, reputation tracking, and social community management. Users can easily develop a powerful resume of past network activity, verified by the blockchain, while avoiding interaction with malicious parties that have proven their unreliability.
Hierarchical Organization
In Urbit, IDs are grouped hierarchically: galaxies are higher than stars are higher than planets, which represent, more or less, individual users. This hierarchical organization solves two of the greatest problems associated with a large-scale P2P network: data and software distribution and identity discovery.
While the goal of a P2P network is for users to transact with each other directly, without a third-party intermediary, it is nearly impossible for individual nodes to locate each other if they can only communicate with known servers. Trying to transfer assets between two unlinked identities would be like trying to find a person on the other side of the world by asking your friends to ask their friends to ask their friends, and so on.
Beyond identity location, Urbit’s hierarchical structure also ensures rapid dissemination of data and software updates across the entire network, employing higher IDs as nodes without losing the benefits of a decentralized network. While galaxies have voting power in the Urbit ecosystem, there is little functional difference between celestial levels in Urbit — galaxies and stars serve as distribution centers, but planets possess the same ability to interact with Urbit and take advantage of the powerful tools populating the network.
Hoon, Nock, and Merklized Data
Hoon, Urbit’s native coding language, and Nock, its barebones assembly language, are essential to Urbit’s replacing the current internet stack. While there are plenty of technical reasons to be excited about Hoon, the easy answer is this: Hoon is dead simple.
Hoon, like all programming languages, has a learning curve, but the straightforward structure of the language drastically reduces software complexity, a significant factor in the formation of internet monopolies. If an everyday internet user can’t host their own server, they have no choice but to surrender their digital sovereignty to third-party web services.
Hoon and Nock are particularly clean, efficient languages, which make them the perfect partner for blockchain integration. With only six op codes (compared to hundreds for Solidity and thousands for other programming languages), Nock offers a simple coding interface for multichain integration and asset transfer protocols, such as ZK-rollups, making Uqbar and Urbit the greatest hope for Ethereum’s most promising scaling solution.
Just as importantly, Urbit features binary tree data organization (also known as Merkle Trees) instead of serialized data. This simple hash tree configuration enables hyper-efficient data discovery and transfer, as well as optimized network function, making Urbit significantly more powerful than other P2P networks, let alone an off-chain system built from scratch to interact with web3 smart contracts.
To Uqbar and Beyond
For Uqbar, Urbit is our secret weapon.
As the blockchain community concerns itself with major questions of scalability and functionality, Urbit allows Uqbar to side-step many of the most difficult barriers to mass adoption of programmatic blockchain platforms. Through Urbit, Uqbar has the ability to settle all high-priority transactions on chain while relegating the rapid activity of everyday life to a secure, decentralized platform unavailable to any other L1 or L2 solution.
Beyond security and scalability, Urbit enables Uqbar to offer an unprecedented unified web3 experience. Users will be able to combine their social, asset management, and financial tools into a single, customizable interface they can access through only one login. Not only will Uqbar offer an Internet experience based on the core principles of privacy, freedom, and digital sovereignty, but surfing the web will be easier and more convenient than ever before.
Urbit was founded to change the world.
Now, Uqbar is finishing the job.
What makes Urbits L1 & 2 so different from other projects. Is it Nock & Hoon?
What makes Urbits L1&2 so different from other projects? Is it Nock & Hoon?