The Athens project epitomizes several longstanding threads in Urbit's vision of a social Internet. Athens lays the groundwork for a transition from a set of centralized apps to a fully decentralized Urbit peer-to-peer network. Communities will be able to start in a captive state and roll over to become fully decentralized as they mature.
Athens therefore begins by defining a field of “captive” apps, or apps that are brokered through a centralized server. It implements the groundwork for the dotpoast vision by identifying security modalities and presenting a single access layout to the various modal apps. It includes a roadmap for transitioning all or part of the network to utilize not only Azimuth but also Arvo.
The initial release of Athens for the general public will include a number of integrated services. “Integration” means that links or references between apps are legible; for instanc