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commitf460883c841712f63d081d8e2d3de2918aef8d20 authorMorgan Sutherland <morgan@morgansutherland.com> dateThu 16 May 2019, 16:08 (7 years ago) parente141c63
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content/posts/2019-5-roadmap.md+13−12 content/posts/azimuth-as-multipass.md+31 content/posts/the-100-year-computer.md+1 content/posts/the-current-state-of-landscape.md → content/posts/the-state-of-landscape.md+5−4
content/posts/2019-5-roadmap.md+13−12
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ title = "~2019.5 Roadmap"
33date = 2019-05-16
44author = "Galen Wolfe-Pauly"
55description = "Where we are and where we're going as of mid-2019."
6+aliases = ["/posts/essays/2019-5-roadmap"]
67[taxonomies]
78posts = ["Essays"]
89+++
@@ -13,9 +14,9 @@ We often get so busy that we forget to tell you what we’ve been up to. Here’
1314
1415At a very high level we have two goals for 2019: make Azimuth easier to use, and get Arvo to a 1.0.
1516
16−Next year we’ll begin to move away from some of the MEGACORP software we use in the office, and replace it with our own tooling. There’s some exciting work happening in that department, but we’ll cover that in a future post.
17+Next year we’ll begin to move away from some of the MEGACORP software we use in the office and replace it with our own tooling. There’s some exciting work happening in that department, but we’ll cover that in a future post.
1718
18−For some related recent thinking on all of this that’s outside the scope of this update, see [The 100 Year Computer](/posts/essays/the-100-year-computer/), [The Current State of Landscape](/posts/essays/the-current-state-of-landscape/) and Azimuth as MultiPass (coming soon).
19+For some related recent thinking on all of this, see [The 100 Year Computer](./posts/essays/the-100-year-computer/), [The Current State of Landscape](./posts/essays/the-current-state-of-landscape/) and [Azimuth as MultiPass](./posts/essays/azimuth-as-multipass/).
1920
2021For now, let’s just look at what’s on the immediate horizon:
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@@ -23,18 +24,16 @@ For now, let’s just look at what’s on the immediate horizon:
2324
2425At lunch the other day someone on our team said something like, ‘We built a complete and working public key infrastructure, but we haven’t told anyone about it.’
2526
26−It’s true. Azimuth is operational, secure, and well tested. It’s a pretty cool piece of technology and it’s out there in the world for anyone to use. It also doesn’t require that you use Arvo — Arvo happens to make use of Azimuth, but Azimuth itself is a completely separate systemit’s a completely separate system. (Though Arvo does require Azimuth).
27+It’s true. Azimuth is operational, secure, and well tested. It’s a pretty cool piece of technology, and it’s out there in the world for anyone to use. It also doesn’t require that you use Arvo — Arvo happens to make use of Azimuth, but it’s a completely separate system.
2728
28−So the question is why haven’t we told the world about it?
29+So, the question is, why haven’t we told the world about it?
2930
30−I tend to think that in order for a technology to succeed it has to not onlynot only has to be an important technical innovation:, but it also has to be easy to understand as a product. And that’s our answer: we’ve undersold Azimuth because we want it to be easier to understand by *using*, not just by reading the code. Azimuth is quite an elegant as a piece of technology — but that it doesn’t matter until it has a great user experience to match.
31+I tend to think that in order for a technology to succeed, it not only has to be an important technical innovation, it also has to be easy to understand as a product. And that’s our answer: we’ve undersold Azimuth because we want it to be easier to understand by *using*, not just by reading the code. Azimuth is quite elegant as a piece of technology, but that it doesn’t matter until it has a great user experience to match.
3132
3233That’s why, in the near term, we’re focused on building on top of Azimuth ourselves. We can’t ask others to go down roads if we haven’t already been down them ourselves.
3334
3435So, here’s what we’re building first:
3536
36−Items bulleted with a ‘-’ are in process and we expect to deliver. Items bulleted with a ‘*’ are still under consideration.
37−
3837### Q2 2019
3938
4039- A simplified onboarding flow for getting an Azimuth point that’s simple to share with friends over email, text or as a URL.
@@ -43,14 +42,16 @@ Items bulleted with a ‘-’ are in process and we expect to deliver. Items bul
4342
4443### Q3 2019
4544
46−- Expanded Azimuth-centric example modules, documentation and developer tooling.
47−- An OAuth server for Azimuth — allowing any service to log users in with Azimuth
48−- A mobile app for point to point payments using Azimuth
45+- Expanded Azimuth-centric example modules, documentation and developer tooling.
4946
50−### 2020
47+Still under consideration:
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52−Azimuth is beginning to feel like multipass (coming soon), with a variety of ways to use Azimuth points without ever booting Arvo
49+- An OAuth server for Azimuth, allowing any service to log users in with Azimuth.
50+- A mobile app for point to point payments using Azimuth.
51+
52+### 2020
5353
54+Azimuth is beginning to feel like [multipass](./posts/essays/azimuth-as-multipass/) (coming soon), with a variety of ways to use Azimuth points without ever booting Arvo
5455
5556## Arvo
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content/posts/azimuth-as-multipass.mdnew file+31
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
1++++
2+title = "Azimuth as Multipass"
3+date = 2019-05-16
4+author = "Galen Wolfe-Pauly"
5+description = "An update on the state of Landscape and the Urbit network."
6+aliases = ["/posts/essays/azimuth-as-multipass/"]
7+[taxonomies]
8+posts = ["Essays"]
9++++
10+
11+![](https://media.urbit.org/site/posts/essays/azimuth-as-multipass-1.png)
12+
13+Why can’t I just walk up to a door and have it open for me? Why can’t I simply arrive at a restaurant and have them know I’m there? Shouldn’t I be able to buy a ticket to a show with my Multipass, then scan it at the entrance and use it to buy drinks?
14+
15+Why should I have to log in with MEGACORP? Today, in most cases, it’s a different MEGACORP for every single context. It’s a MEGAMESS.
16+
17+Why not just use one? Forget about how we get there for a moment: just imagine how simple it could be.
18+
19+An Azimuth point is an identity and a wallet. Both a driver’s license and a credit card. Identity and money. Think about it as a ‘civilizational key’ for a new society. Concretely, it’s nice to imagine it as a physical object. A slick, card sized object with an e-ink screen. You can tap it to pay, tap it to enter, and plug it into a computer to boot your Arvo OS.
20+
21+Worried about losing it? Just remember your ticket. If you use our wallet system, all you need to remember is something like `~ravmel-ropdyl` and `~habpem-sondem-pidbyt-solbyn`. A point and a ticket. That’s it.
22+
23+Woke up in the desert, no idea how you got there, but can still remember your point and ticket? Great! Just get to an internet connection and re-ticket – you’ll be fine. Although probably dehydrated.
24+
25+If you’re someone who’s worried about getting kidnapped, just use a child identity. Your Azimuth planet has ~4B of them, so you can always invalidate one if you lose it.
26+
27+Perhaps part of how we ended up in the world we’re in is that we didn’t have something like Azimuth to begin with. Today, it’s backwards: everyone has an address on the network, but no one has an identity.
28+
29+We think everyone needs an identity that can hold money and have packets routed to it. Start there, and it’s quite fun to imagine where you end up. A civilized digital society might even be possible after all.
30+
31+**Galen Wolfe-Pauly** ~ravmel-ropdyl
content/posts/the-100-year-computer.md+1
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ title = "The 100-Year Computer"
33date = 2019-05-14
44author = "Galen Wolfe-Pauly"
55description = "One way to think about Urbit: as a \"100-year computer.\""
6+aliases = ["/posts/essays/the-100-year-computer/"]
67[taxonomies]
78posts = ["Essays"]
89+++
content/posts/the-current-state-of-landscape.md → content/posts/the-state-of-landscape.mdrenamed+5−4
@@ -1,13 +1,14 @@
11+++
2−title = "The Current State of Landscape"
2+title = "The State of Landscape"
33date = 2019-05-16
44author = "Galen Wolfe-Pauly"
55description = "An update on the state of Landscape and the Urbit network."
6+aliases = ["/posts/essays/the-state-of-landscape"]
67[taxonomies]
78posts = ["Essays"]
89+++
910
10−![](https://media.urbit.org/site/posts/essays/the-current-state-of-landscape-1.png)
11+![](https://media.urbit.org/site/posts/essays/the-state-of-landscape-1.png)
1112
1213The TL;DR is: if you’re really excited about living on Mars, Landscape is fun to try out. Come join `~dopzod/urbit-help`, experiment with creating your own chats and collections (did anyone find that easter egg, yet?), and see what you can do with the thing.
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@@ -49,7 +50,7 @@ The second is that Ames (our network protocol) has occasional connectivity probl
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5051Relatedly, we have occasionally been seeing errors caused by the Arvo network being slow to register keys from the blockchain. If you’re a newly registered Azimuth point, and your keys were just put on-chain, it can take some time for that change to propagate. This can result in a confusing situation for new ships.
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52−### 2 - There’s no ‘Individual Continuity Breach’
53+### 2 - There’s no ‘individual continuity breach’
5354
5455One great thing about the Arvo network is that it’s more like a giant single computer than a network. When you talk to another ship, use remote files or sync data it’s almost the same as working with local data.
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@@ -59,7 +60,7 @@ We’d like individual resets to work, and we’re [working on it](https://githu
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6061This is another unacceptable bug for anything we truly rely on.
6162
62−### 3 - There are no Push Notifications, Yet
63+### 3 - There are no push notifications, yet
6364
6465What’s one thing that a chat application needs to do? Notify you of new messages. What does Landscape notify you about? Well, at the moment, basically nothing.
6566