Urbit: Making the Future Real (KEYNOTE)
summary
Claims a working worldwide, self-updating, blockchain‑addressed network with a functional-language stack whose spec “fits on a T‑shirt,” built on Knock VM and the Hoon language. Project starts in 2002, survives an 11‑year solo phase, raises a small amount of capital, and runs thousands of nodes. Built pieces include a cryptographic identity layer where addresses are NFTs, a reproducible Arvo kernel, and a chat/onboarding prototype that actually boots, upgrades itself, and accepts passkey-backed wallets.
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chapters (15)
- 0:00Introduction
- 2:53Boiling the ocean and Urbit’s ambition
- 10:24Urbit’s origins
- 17:49Why Unix fails
- 23:10Building Urbit alone
- 27:44Surviving without PMF
- 31:36Crypto’s role in Urbit
- 35:08Leaving Tlon
- 37:15Urbit’s evolution
- 41:15Struggle for adoption
- 45:31Returning to focus on product-market fit
- 49:00Urbit as identity
- 51:27Secure chat design
- 55:19Onboarding and plans
- 58:31Unsolved challenges
