Interoperable Urbit

By ~talnev-lagrys

All the Web2 users (this is the superset of all users who may later become Web3 users) getting one @p or informally an Urbit ID & using it extensively in their daily lives will be the best case scenario for Urbit.

A user, today, has a varied digital footprint right from the emails to browsing data to personal files (most of them could be over Google Drive or Dropbox) to on chain Web3 data to the datasets generated at hundreds and thousands of Web2 applications, let’s say from Airbnb to Substack to Social media sites. So, ideally the user is in a meshed environment.

In true ideal sense all such kinds of data should be owned by @p in his/her dedicated or hosted Urbit ships.

There are two ways to attain the above-mentioned Urbit Nirvana.

  1. Starting from Urbit and marching ahead - Urbit centric applications are built, initial community starts using it, earliest adoption kicks in and then acceleration is infused in the organic manner. This will be the longest execution & will require developers, projects and Urbit to be agile and alive

  2. Meshed Approach - Starting with the example of Nostr which is a multi-purpose knife; as soon as the Web2 user signs up with Nostr he/she gets a Lightning wallet for instant Bitcoin transactions + immediate access to completely decentralized social media platform populated with Notes (it’s similar to X but far more superior, powerful & indispensable)

Key takeaway is that Urbit needs meshed applications that would onboard Web2 or Web3 users without requiring them to have Urbit IDs. Getting hooked to Urbit should be a byproduct of the complete offering or the process.

We’re working on the following Lego blocks that may speed up the Meshed Approach

  1. A mobile application that takes in Gmail addresses, gets them approved via OAuth and at the backend, creates a Bitcoin Lightning wallet & assigns Urbit ID to the user. So, at the end a mapping is made between the email ID (most commonly used application of Internet) + a Bitcoin Wallet (for Web3 fastest transactions in sats) + an Urbit ID (ready to use it for keeping the transaction logs at respective ships or most importantly be reversely accessible from the Urbit network or still in the most simplest explanation - each Urbit ID gets a Lightning wallet along with the association of the email address) - More about the mobile application in later conversation

  2. Web2 domain security that maps a web2 domain with the Nostr profile (along with a Bitcoin wallet) + Urbit IDs for the owners of Web2 domains

  3. Ground up, Web3 sovereign browser called Muster hooked to Urbit enabling meshed approach by mapping email addresses + Bitcoin wallet + Urbit IDs
    (Disclaimer here - Urbit Foundation has cancelled our Muster grant but we’re fully committed to work & release Muster)

  4. A mapping between Web2 domains + Web3 domains (coming from ENS, Solana & Hedera Hashgraph) + Urbit IDs so that they could be used interchangeably. So, if you have a Web2 or Web3 domain, you’ve an Urbit ID and vice versa

Meshed approach demands interoperability & this will be the golden catalyst to take Urbit to the next level.

Som Kirann (~talnev-lagrys)