Urbit, Nockchain, and the Current State of Sovereignty Technology

Urbit, Nockchain, and the Current State of Sovereignty Technology

From Other Life by Justin Murphy

May 21, 2025 · 49 min · Episode 240

About this episode

Justin Murphy reviews the state of Urbit and discusses his experiences with the project and its ecosystem.

In this episode, I review the state of Urbit and my history with this ambitious project to rebuild the internet. I explain why I stepped back, detailing what's happened with the network in the past few years, including the challenges faced by startups attempting to build on the platform and the surprising return of founder Curtis Yarvin. I take an honest look at how my initial timeline expectations were off, and other mistakes I made. This period taught me a lot about technology, market sentiment, and cognition. I share how the experience has shaped my current thinking, as well as my current work with Zorp, a startup from the Urbit ecosystem now building Nockchain. I discuss the attraction of zero-knowledge proofs and why I've adopted a more patient attitude in my relationship with radical technology projects, now preferring to work behind the scenes if I really believe in something. This is my first update on what I've been doing with Nockchain over the past year, helping to build their audience. 01:21 Discovering Urbit 02:44 Involvement with Urbit 04:44 Challenges and Reflections 05:38 The Independent Scholar 06:57 Urbit's Market Dynamics 15:31 Urbit Startups and Setbacks 22:49…

People in this episode

Host: Justin Murphy

Topics covered

  • Urbit
  • technology
  • sovereignty
  • startups
  • zero-knowledge proofs

Keywords

  • Urbit
  • Nockchain
  • Curtis Yarvin
  • zero-knowledge proofs
  • technology challenges

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Urbit, Zorp, Nockchain

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