In essence, Urbit aims to upend the current architecture of the internet, in which users are clients of massive centralized servers that store data, in favor of a decentralized model in which users have ownership of their identities and their data. This ownership is tied to the same encryption technology—the blockchain—that underpins cryptocurrencies. Urbit’s promise of a “planet,” it turns out, refers to this: the unique ID, inscribed on the Ethereum blockchain, that guards one’s data and enables encrypted communication.
