Bitcoin Forum

Time banking - economics of sharing economy - pondering Time Republik

Time Republik is a very interesting project! The developers are trying to create a parallel economy based on time, taking the whole idea of money out!

https://timerepublik.com/ (https://timerepublik.com/)

I would like to hear your comments about this project!

It has already been tried. Look up Ithaca Hours. That started out as a way to trade time, just like Time Republik, but it didn't work because the value of time is different for different people.

Its really a great idea.
But the question is.. How do I make money?

yes, +1 same question
can we make online money from this project or this is just for tutorial information?

Yes it seems that the real problem for this type of project is exactly that! I really find this whole idea from Time Republik very interesting, but the problem is that we need to stipulate the value of time which can be a lot different from person to person, from profession to profession or task to task.
I think that BTC could be used to solve this fundamental problem. Using the bitcoin blockchain to Tokenize time and to give its rightful value.

It's just an idea at this point but I truly believe it can be made.

Considering time is relative, how are they going to measure it?
Doesn't make much sense to me. We as a society aren't ready to remove money out of the system, we still need money and im afraid it will be like this for a long time. Might as well use the objectively best form of money out there, and that's Bitcoin.

There is the issue of tools and capital.

Person A takes 8 hours to dig a trench with a shovel.
Person B takes 8 minutes to dig the same trench with a backhoe.

How much do you pay Person A? How much do you pay Person B?



There is the issue of expertise.

Person C can sew a dress in 1 hour.
Person C's 8 year old daughter can sew that same dress in 8 hours.

How much do you pay Person C? How much do you pay the daughter?

The whole idea of the project is to take the notion of money out! Instead, it seems to me they present a new concept where you can earn credits based on an hour in exchange for your services. It means that the user can effectively generate value simply by offering his services online. time will serve as the main base to do this accounting (1Hour). The basic idea behind it is to create a community economy based on hours of one's time, rather than a national currency. Users of the system would earn time credits by offering their services to the community, and spend those credits with anyone else on the system by paying for their services. And this would only work to be mainly used for services, rather than goods.

So, in a way you will be able to generate value.

it's a very good idea  :o
but may require substantial capital to make  :(

For me Time republik  seems more like a school project that real solution. I don't think it will be growing into something of real value.
It is a shame really because this project has potential.

you must have the capital and bitcoin very much to control

How can you expect someone to do a job without an exchange of money?
I understand the system and its really cool for me, but....
people need money, people sell their time for money...
it will only work if you can pay your food with your time.
And I'm afraid it wont work this time.

Well, the proposal talks about using tokenization to solve that same issue!
There is an immense potential with using Blockchain verified tokens as a mechanism to transform the value that the user generates. Ithe idea is already there; it just needs to be discussed and developed.

 Thanks for posting that,it is very intersting area,coplimentarycurrncys,sharing economys,barters all that is growing from years and now it is more and more popular i will post you tomorrow some links

Time money,sharing services in your local area

The idea is to have money backed by time. When a person does work, they earn a credit for each hour that they work. The credits have value because they can always be exchanged for an hour of someone else's work. For example, you work for an hour and someone pays you 1 credit. You take credit to the grocery store and buy some food. The grocery store pays their employees and wholesalers with the credits from customers. etc.

I guess it would be necessary to pre-establish a standard pay for each service according to experience level. You would pay to the Person C the Senior price while for the person C's daughter you would pay as if it was a novice. The same as you would if you wanted to hire someone according to experience and performance.

Time banking is interesting for small communities where people know themselves and know their counterparty will be productive in the time he/she is "working".

In an online community, I see too much ways to game the system.

And if we read Marx's Capital, we see that in some way our actual Capitalist monetary system is a form of time banking (Labour Theory of Value), but in a very complex way that introduces new problems and inequalities.

Have you watched the movie "In time"? To make time a currency, you should be able to transfer time biologically in order to extend the life of the beneficiary  ;D

Thanks for the feedback, Ithaca Hours is a good example of an alternate economy however, each HOUR had a dollar equivalent, they printed it on paper, and it was accepted at local businesses. The goal was to promote the local economy and according to the wiki several million hours were traded.

“Each HOUR would be worth the equivalent of $10, which was about the average hourly amount that workers earned in surrounding Tompkins County,[9]”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ithaca_Hours

The stark difference, is that Ithaca Hours do not represent TIME.

TIME is equal for everyone, there are 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour, 60 seconds in a minute for EVERYONE. This is our approach at TimeRepublik which is why TIME cannot be purchased, it can only be exchanged.

Our goal is to promote a global economy of Time Banking with people all over the world. Because TIME is created equal, we challenge everyone to think of exchanging services or value for time itself. The value someone can deliver in an hour, is what determines the value of that person’s skills.

Plus, Digital time credits have different properties from physical currency. In addition, we are not estimating value to try to decrease risk for future returns on investment but instead measuring time expired as a way to create sustainability in the communities reservoir of time.

It depends on what you want to use the money for. Time credits are a complimentary system to money and therefore can take care of some of the needs fulfilled with money but not all.

This is fundamentally at the core of our market economy. You can make money delivering pizza, allow someone else to decide the value of your time, and exchange your time/energy for an hourly wage.

We propose that you can earn Time instead, which you can use globally to transact with other folks in our Time Bank. There are folks in our community who offer graphic design, web development, language tutoring, etc. which will gladly accept TIME in exchange for services.

We absolutely agree that bitcoin is extraordinary and we certainly cannot remove money. We are simply offering a complimentary system to give more options. 

Time’s effect on humans does change depending on how close they are to the ground but this is an infinitesimally small amount. So, we say for all practical purposes time is a constant. Time unlike currency is not based on belief. The only thing that everyone in the world seems to agree on is that an hour takes an hour and that there are 24 of them everyday. We are leveraging this shared opportunity to introduce a complimentary system to the current one that gives some different options and possibilities. We see the power and extraordinary world changing potential behind bitcoin and are simply offering yet another option for bringing about a paradigm shift. 


We have more than one user that was able to find a job, because of interactions on the platform. People, especially younger students, are able to build a portfolio. Also countries with heavy unemployment rates (Youth unemployment in Spain 73%!!!) find in TIMEREPUBLIK a valuable solution to still be active, get services, and have global visibility.

Ithaca Hours started out by crediting time just like TimeRepublik (1 Ithaca Hour = 1 hour), but it didn't work so they switched to 1 Ithaca Hour = $10.


If person A can produce 10 widgets in an hour, and person B can produce 100 widgets in an hour, then how much is a widget worth, 1/10 hour or 1/100 hour?

Person B sells his widgets for 1/100 hour. He gets 1 hour for one hour of work. In order to compete, person A must sell his widgets for 1/100 hour. He gets 1/10 hour for one hour of work. A's time is not equal to B's time.