Operating outside traditional Internet infrastructure, Urbit seeks to establish a decentralized network — one where users and creators own their data. It is hobbled by governance issues rooted in its original creation. Decision-making power is effectively proportional to ownership of address space on the network, a structure set down by founder Curtis Yarvin. This model has opened up questions over Urbit’s trajectory to fulfilling the vision of a user-owned internet. Leadership changes and other technical hurdles are adding to these uncertainties.

Curtis Yarvin originally imagined Urbit to be an escape from Big Tech and surveillance, a place users could have their own private virtual machines. Not only does the project build on Ethereum’s tech, but it echoes the Ethereum community’s dreams of securing more individual sovereignty through decentralization. As ambitious as it was, Urbit has drawn ire for duplicating the same subscription-oriented cloud app structure it had originally intended to supplant.

Yarvin, who writes under the name Mencius Moldbug, is the creator of “neo-cameralism,” a political philosophy that fuses monarchism with libertarianism. His vision of governance, where "The ideal government is a corporation that owns its country in the same way that Apple owns its factories or Microsoft owns its software," - Moldbug (Curtis Yarvin) reflects a top-down approach that contrasts with the ideals of decentralization. Ownership over membership This philosophy has extended to Urbit’s governance structure, in which ownership of the tokens determines who can make decisions.

For Urbit, their story started with the release of an Ethereum smart contract in 2017, where identities were auctioned off as NFTs. By 2016, Urbit had fully set up its online campaign, officially launching the network in 2017. The project caught fire, with Urbit parties quickly becoming a staple of New York’s downtown arts scene. The conference, dubbed “New World Energy,” underscored Urbit’s skyrocketing power and reach and hubris.

Hyperstition, a concept that emerged from the CCRU, was important to Urbit’s emergence. It’s kind of like the Borges story that inspired the Tlon Corporation’s name. "As it describes a future, it actively brings that future into being." Similar to Urbit’s mission to create a new, decentralized internet, this concept comes from the notion that ideas are the premise for real change.

Curtis Yarvin formally departed from Urbit in 2019, saying that he wanted Urbit to be developed by a team that could grow past him. Yet, he rejoined, blasting the Urbit Foundation’s administration as a blend of conservatism and fantasy. Yarvin attributed this to a lack of focus on making the core OS great, which he encapsulated in his usual folksy way as “just not aerospace-grade."

Urbit’s hugely technical infrastructure gap has given rise to paid third-party Urbit hosting services, including one from Urbit Core Inc.’s Tlon. This development raised concerns that "Urbit users were ultimately living under the domination of a king," undermining the project's goal of decentralization. Despite these challenges, "The connected world anticipated by Urbit is a much friendlier one," - Tlon Corporation.

Urbit’s cosmology of self-ownership and decentralized coordination without centralization complements other attempts to “re-decentralize Web 3.0.” These initiatives all have the laudable aim of starting to build the user-owned internet. Urbit’s unconventional governance structure and technical challenges have led to questions about its likelihood to successfully realize this vision.

"From the very start, I knew Urbit could not succeed until it ceased to be mine and became the world's," - Curtis Yarvin

"democracy is the most beautiful … but not the most effective" - Curtis Yarvin

"By failing to take the hors d'oeuvres while they were being passed around," - Curtis Yarvin