Tlon January update

Salutations and an overdue happy 2022,

How is the new year treating you? Are you looking out your window, willing the days to get longer and warmer? Same.

I recently rediscovered Henry Miller's Big Sur and the Orange of Hieronymus Bosch and have since been ruminating on a quote I underlined:

"If we are always arriving and departing, it is also true that we are eternally anchored. One's destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things…"

To me, this aptly corresponds to what we've been working on: taking stock, evolving, and reaffirming our push for a cozier, more useful internet. With the official separation of the Urbit Foundation, our ongoing renovation of Landscape, and the incipient release of L2, we're moving toward a destination of sorts. But there'll always be a new destination, a new way of looking at things. The pursuit is our anchor.

Now, a word from Galen on what's next after L2 crosses the finish line.

1 – 2022 at Glance

"Today we’re in the midst of ironing out the final issues with Urbit’s very own L2. When we roll it out, the gas costs for launching a planet will go down by about 60x. Last quarter, we shipped the ability for anyone to build, package and ship an Urbit app directly to their friends.

The combination of these two things feels both like a huge relief and the perfect way to set the stage for this year. They’re both seriously challenging technical projects (which will, of course, take time to fully stabilize) that make it possible for an even more active, more interesting network of communities to grow on Landscape.

2022 is all about opening up what we have built to the broader world of both users and developers. We're focused on improving the developer experience and showing off what can be built in this new world as well as giving people the tools to run their own communities, clubs, squads and tribes in a simple, approachable, and straightforward way.

Those of us who are on the network understand the unique feeling of running your own personal server. It’s unquestionably the future, and it’ll be a lot of fun to get others to join us here."

~riprud-tidmel's ideal work setup.

2 – L2 Update

Next up: an elegant precis on the status of L2 from James Acklin, aka bosser-hatber.

"Tlon’s Layer 2 team has been working around-the-clock to squash emergent networking issues and bring the L2 project to a successful close. L2 has been nearly a year in the works, and although there are entire companies focused entirely on Layer 2 Ethereum rollups, the people on our crack team are the smartest and most qualified to lead Urbit into this new chapter.

All the Layer 2 transactions we have sent have completed successfully and the L2 ships we’ve either booted or have given away to testers all work nearly flawlessly. Bridge, formerly a bit of a neglected stepchild, has received the dutiful and well-deserved attention of our design team. It is now a beautiful, functional utility for Urbit ID.

Ultimately, quality is our aim. We are confident that new L2 ships function on the Urbit network exactly the same as L1 ships, but we are doing another quality assurance pass for absolute certainty. If we can help it, the last thing we want is a bad first experience on Urbit.

We will be passing out a nontrivial number of L2 planets during a giveaway event featuring some of your favorite outspoken members of the Urbit community. If you’ve been waiting for a planet, keep your eyes peeled on their Twitter feeds, individual groups, Urbit Community posts, and so on. We can’t promise an exact date, but as we say… Soon™ :)

You can follow our every move on our publicly visible project board."

3 – Urbit Dialogue 041

Join the conversation tomorrow (Friday, January 28th) at 12PM PDT for another Urbit Dialogue. Tlon's CTO ~wicdev-wisryt will be discussing the upcoming launch of L2 and the Bridge interface rework. Tlon's Product Manager ~bosser-hatber will also be chiming in.

Prepare your questions or follow along in the Urbit Community general chat (~bitbet-bolbel/urbit-community).

4 – OpenSea Update

When the Galactic Senate voted to upgrade our Ecliptic contracts to allow for $WSTR updates, it inadvertently caused some confusion on OpenSea. After a brief interruption, this issue has been officially resolved. The Urbit ID collection now points to the correct contract address.

~ravmel-ropdyl location scouting somewhere in Santa Cruz.

5 – We're hiring

Tell your friends or apply yourself. Two new job postings just went live:

Community Manager: Are you an extrovert? Do you label every email in your inbox? Can you walk and chew gum at the same time? If you're nodding, good news. We're looking for a gregarious, methodical person to cultivate engaged communities through owning onboarding, education, and support-related programs.

Frontend Developer: We're hiring a developer to join a remote team working on interface and building out Landscape to be a home for digital communities. This position requires collaboration, practicality, and keen discernment. Familiarity with Hoon is a plus, but not required.

If you have any other career questions, send a dm to ~roslet-tanner or reach out via email.

6 – Tlon about town

Galen went on the The Orbis Ledger podcast to discuss, among other things, where Urbit's been and where it's going.

Justin Murphy, or ~hatryx-lastud on the network, is releasing a multi episode series on Urbit and ~fabled-faster appeared on episode one.

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Recommendations

I've been slowly working through my long Criterion Collection watch list. Some recent favorites: Barbara Loden's Wanda; Frank Perry's Diary of a Mad Housewife; and Jia Zhangke's Still Life.

Relatedly, ~bosser-hatber has been making his way through the Fast & Furious franchise. "They are amazing films," he says. "A near-perfect time capsule from each year of the films' releases."

~fabled-faster suggests The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation. You can probably guess its content, but he adds, "It's a book that uncovers the rise and fall of one of the most influential industrial labs ever created.

–

Godspeed,

~dalwes-migdec

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Blog Tlon January update

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