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# Urbit: Digital Privacy According to Curtis Yarvin
- URL: https://www.421.news/en/urbit-digital-privacy-curtis-yarvin/
- Published: 2025-07-01T14:18:33.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-08T01:51:09.000Z
- Description: We review the key elements of Tlon Corporation's project, which aims to fix the lack of privacy and the excess of digital centralization.
- Author: Giancarlo Brusca
- Tags: tech, #giancarlo-brusca, #en, #ensayo

What would happen if we owned our entire **digital** [**life**](https://www.421.news/es/fabricacion-de-microchips-y-semiconductores/) without having to make extra efforts to achieve it? That's the promise of [**Urbit**](https://x.com/urbit?ref=421.news), a project created by **Curtis Yarvin** in 2002, which has been slowly cooking in the shadows ever since. Just as crypto is the "patch" for the [internet](https://www.421.news/es/anonimato-en-internet/) that aims to fix the problem of centralization and lack of privacy in information transactions, **Urbit** aims to fix the entire stack.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2b/7f/2b7f69fc-a243-4d2f-ae8e-db8312c6653a/content/images/2025/07/Urbit-1.png)

## **Urbit**

**Urbit** is the main project of [**Tlon Corporation**](https://x.com/tloncorporation?ref=421.news), which takes its name from the short story ***Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius,* by Jorge Luis Borges**. It's a Virtual Operating System — it needs an underlying OS to exist, such as Windows, Linux, or MacOS — built from scratch, completely decentralized and private. Each computer is called a "**ship**" and functions as its own server; all **ships** connect to each other through a **peer-to-peer (P2P) network** called **Ames**. To identify themselves within the system, each ship has its own ID that is an NFT on the **Ethereum** network; and this identity model — also designed by and for **Urbit** — is called **Azimuth**.

The philosophy and raison d'etre of **Urbit** is based on the idea that our entire **digital** [**life**](https://www.421.news/es/que-es-small-web-como-funciona/) is built on foundations that point toward the user not having full control over their data. We all use operating systems that tend toward centralization or depend on very high technical knowledge and the use of complex external [tools](https://www.421.news/es/moda-estetica-en-la-politica/) to achieve real privacy (like [**Tails**](https://tails.net/?ref=421.news)**,** [**Qubes OS**](https://www.qubes-os.org/?ref=421.news), or certain Linux distributions). To fulfill that goal, **Curtis Yarvin** decided to reinvent the wheel and, in 2002, began by creating **Nock**.

## **Nock**

**Nock**, as legend has it, was programmed entirely by a young **Yarvin**, and it's the foundation of the entire system. It's a [**low-level programming language**](https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenguaje%5Fde%5Fbajo%5Fnivel?ref=421.news), completely new, defined in a specification of roughly 33 lines of code that describes functional operations. These operations are interpreted by **Vere**, **Urbit**'s runtime environment, written in C.

## **Vere**

**Vere** executes the code, implementing **Nock**'s operations on the underlying operating system (Windows, Linux, MacOS). Every low-level language like **Nock** is complemented by a simpler [**high-level language**](https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenguaje%5Fde%5Falto%5Fnivel?ref=421.news), so that normal human beings like us can contribute to the system and code our own applications. **Urbit**'s high-level language is called **Hoon**. In short: the high-level language (**Hoon**) compiles to the low-level language (**Nock**), and the runtime environment (**Vere**) executes it.

## **Hoon**

**Hoon** is, then, the high-level language in which the largest percentage of **Urbit** is built. It's a functional language also created from scratch, quite complex (but less so than **Nock**), and it's where 99% of community contributions are made. There are contributions to **Nock**, but they're few and far between — in fact, the last one was in 2016.

## **Arvo / Urbit OS**

All applications are written in **Hoon**, as well as the **Ames** network and the operating system itself, called **Arvo** (or **Urbit OS**), which is responsible for managing events, running applications, administering the ship's state, handling the interface, and coordinating the modules in charge of specific and important system functionalities (just as **Ames** is the P2P network, there are others like **Clay**, for instance, which handles the filesystem).

## **Ships**

Each **ship** runs its own copy of **Arvo** and stores its data (messages, files, applications) locally, without relying on a centralized server like traditional applications (WhatsApp, Gmail). You are the owner of your **ship**, your data, and your identity. Your **ship** can serve [content](https://www.421.news/es/reconocer-contenido-generado-por-ia/) (like publishing posts, hosting applications, or sharing files) directly to others through the **Ames** network.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2b/7f/2b7f69fc-a243-4d2f-ae8e-db8312c6653a/content/images/2025/07/Urbit---2.jpg)

## **How to Run Urbit Locally**

A practical example of what you can do with this: you install **Urbit** [on your computer](https://www.421.news/es/pop-os-linux/) and create a ship called *\~sampel-palnet* (**Azimuth** IDs have these names). Your computer runs **Vere**, which executes **Arvo** on your ship. You use a chat application and send a message to another person (say, *\~dolpan-lacfel*); your ship encrypts it and sends it directly to theirs via **Ames**, without going through a central server.

In fact, I did exactly this. The **Urbit** community isn't as big as [**Remilia**](https://www.421.news/es/remilia-milady-charlotte-fang-nueva-internet/)'s just yet, but they're friendly, and it's not hard to find them on X if you know where to look. That's how I reached out to [**без телеологии (@sitful\_hatred)**](https://x.com/sitful%5Fhatred?ref=421.news) and told him I wanted to write this piece. His immediate response was to gift me an ID so I could access the official version of **Urbit** (the IDs, being [on Ethereum](https://www.421.news/es/ethrex-ethereum-client-lambda-class/), cost money). He sent it to me by email and I proceeded to run **Urbit** locally.

Running the system locally still isn't easy for people who've never used the terminal, but [**here's the official tutorial**](https://docs.urbit.org/manual/getting-started/self-hosted?ref=421.news) if you want to give it a try. [**Tlon Messenger**](https://tlon.io/?ref=421.news) comes by default and is **Urbit**'s official chat application — a kind of Telegram but weirder and, like everything in this universe, 100% private and decentralized. In addition to one-on-one chats, there are plenty of topic-based groups where you can interact with the community.

## **Conclusion**

My overall experience using **Urbit** was that of trying something still in a fairly early stage of development. There's an endless amount of work ahead, but progress is being made and the community is strong. Definitely a project worth keeping an eye on every now and then to see how it's going. And why not contribute, if it piques your interest.