"An Urbit" is a tiny VM with its own network protocol. It allows you to run apps written for it which can communicate over the Urbit network (By far the most used one is an instant messaging app).
Every Urbit has a permanent address which persists even if you move it around between computers. Each Urbit fully encapsulates its own state, so it can be zipped into a single file, unzipped 20 years later on a different computer, and it'll still work, still be able to connect to the network, and still contain all the data you had.
Urbit apps are fully decentralized, users own all the data and control what and how they wish to share it via the Urbit network.
As it contains a high-level Turing-complete programming language named Hoon, it could be used for anything which regular computers are used for.
There are actually some very interesting ideas in Urbit. Unfortunately it's all hidden below many layers of obfuscation and weird naming.
Every Urbit has a permanent address which persists even if you move it around between computers. Each Urbit fully encapsulates its own state, so it can be zipped into a single file, unzipped 20 years later on a different computer, and it'll still work, still be able to connect to the network, and still contain all the data you had.
Urbit apps are fully decentralized, users own all the data and control what and how they wish to share it via the Urbit network.
As it contains a high-level Turing-complete programming language named Hoon, it could be used for anything which regular computers are used for.
There are actually some very interesting ideas in Urbit. Unfortunately it's all hidden below many layers of obfuscation and weird naming.