The Trouble with Urbit post 
by Francis Tseng
Urbit positions itself as a P2P project, but it stands out in contrast to other P2P projects, mainly because the person behind it, Curtis Yarvin, seems antithetical to what Francis Tseng understands P2P to represent.
His central question is this: Is Urbit a project that should be supported?
We can further break this down into two parts. First, Urbit’s marketing materials correctly identify that concentrated data aggregation and decision-making power are fundamental issues of the internet-as-we-know-it. Twitter’s persistent neglect of harassment on its platform is one everyday example. It is clear that new protocols and platforms that reduce our dependency on distant power are needed to challenge these issues. What’s less clear, though, is whether or not Urbit actually offers a meaningful alternative. Does Urbit genuinely enable new kinds of relations? Or, does it merely replace the old aristocracy with a new one?
The second, and more urgent, question is: who and what are we supporting by supporting Urbit?
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If power in Urbit is predicated on Ownership [⇒ Ownership Metaphor], then it’s worth asking who owns what.
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What ideas do we want to manifest in our world? Francis Tseng absolutely agrees that what Urbit positions itself against—an internet dominated by concentrated corporate interests and surveillance infrastructure—is something that internet technologists need to build alternatives to. But we shouldn’t replace it with another system of undemocratic control or one that supports far-right intellectuals. He hopes to see more P2P projects that commit to most promising values of P2P systems – plurality, democracy, mutual interdependence, sharing, and cooperation – as they take on the difficult but necessary task of creating egalitarian platforms and infrastructure, rather than rehashing the old hierarchies. P2P computing is still a burgeoning technology, and while there are projects like Scuttlebutt, Beaker Browser, and the various Fediverse projects, which all reflect its potential, there is plenty of room for more.