Urbit is totally new to me, but from what I understand, the hierarchical identity layout and restricted address space are instant red flags for any distributed system. Oh, and the founders assert ownership over a non-trivial block of addresses.

Looking in from the outside, this looks like a fairly transparent attempt at bootstrapping a fiefdom: Create a type of digital "property", artificially restrict supply, reserve a huge chunk for yourself, and hope it becomes popular (making you "digital rich" and "digital powerful").