logoHackFS 2022

Urbit

$4,500

About

Urbit is a platform for functional-paradigm computing to provide networking, identity, and data control at the level of the operating system. The Urbit OS provides a number of helpful tools and system guarantees for Web3 and other applications. Developers will find Urbit OS and Urbit ID serve as a sound platform for building networked decentralized applications.

Urbit is a platform for functional-paradigm computing to provide networking, identity, and data control at the level of the operating system. The Urbit OS provides a number of helpful tools and system guarantees for Web3 and other applications. Developers will find Urbit OS and Urbit ID serve as a sound platform for building networked decentralized applications.

Prizes

Urbit$4,500

🏆 Urbit will award an Urbit Star (~4 ETH) to the team with the best project utilizing Urbit.

There are several possible ways to integrate Urbit and IPFS/Filecoin over a hackathon period. 

  • The most obvious and desirable integration for Urbit OS at this time is to implement support of S3-style bindings for IPFS/Filecoin to support file hosting for social media applications, most notably Landscape and EScape. 
  • An ipfs:// protocol browser could be introduced as a standalone app within Urbit.
  • A Slate or Lotus Node interface as an Urbit app would be relatively straightforward. A Filecoin interface (up to and including block storage) would be a good though relatively complex proof-of-concept application (as the Urbit filesystem is still relatively small at 2 GB, a limitation that will be superseded later). 
  • Any of these would use Urbit as a database and authentication mechanism to coordinate an IPFS process that a user already has running (locally or in the cloud) or has access to (Filecoin, Slate, etc.).

Getting Started

Urbit OS is a hosted operating system programmed in the Hoon functional language which runs on the Nock virtual machine. Urbit OS operates as a state machine with a discrete event log providing strong guarantees about building and evaluating code.

Besides building apps directly using the Urbit OS platform, you can also work with the Urbit ID system Azimuth, an ERC-721 non-fungible point, or its wrapped equivalent $WSTR. Azimuth points also correspond to unique NFT-like digital avatars called sigils.