[randallsquared]

They are intentionally scarce.

[zamalek]

> By keeping addresses scarce, we make spam and abuse expensive

The entire population of earth wouldn't be able to sign up. Just over half could. What happens in 50 years when all of those 4.2 billion people are dead? Does the entire infrastructure die along with those who were "lucky" enough to win the lottery?

[dingaling]

> The entire population of earth wouldn't be able to sign up

They also have freely-available 128-bit identities, called 'submarines', that can be created on whim.

The 32-bit identities are 'destroyers', both being subsets of 'ships'.

Like everything else associated with Urbit, it's back-to-front. Real-world destroyers hugely out-number submarines.

[knubie]

They've changed the nomenclature since then. submarines -> comets, destroyers -> planet. along with 64 bit moons, 16 bit stars, and 8 bit galaxies.

[GFK_of_xmaspast]

Addresses are transferred through agnatic selection.