Chronobank.io: 0x Protocol Ecosystem, project spotlight

Brent Oshiro
Sep 7, 2018 · 11 min read

Join me as I dive deeper into the diverse 0x Protocol ecosystem and get a closer look at some of the interesting projects being built using the protocol. Check out my previous article to see the ecosystem from a macro view.

While on a recent trip to Sydney, Australia, I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to interview the CEO of Chronobank.io, Sergei Sergienko, and learn about his company’s singular mission to “make it easier to access short-term employment.” ChronoBank’s LaborX platform “enables anyone, anywhere in the world to access jobs in the gig economy,” and “uses a decentralised network and blockchain payments to ensure there are no middlemen or barriers: no banks, no recruitment agencies, no gatekeepers of any kind.” (quoted from the ChronoBank for dummies blog post)

We had an engaging conversation where I learned more about ChronoBank’s grand vision, the concept of timebanking which underpins that vision, and how the 0x protocol fits into the overall picture.

Date of interview: August 6, 2018

Who are you and what do you do at ChronoBank?

Sergei: My name is Sergei Sergienko and I’m CEO of a project called ChronoBank. We were one of the first ICOs…that was back in 2016. And well, I’d like to think we’re one of the first ICOs that really punted out. We brought it to the general population. Prior to us, ICOs were all about thread of Bitcointalk (referring to the new project announcements thread on the Bitcointalk.org forum)…since us, they all started kicking every kind of marketing media out there.

Can you briefly share your background?

Sergei: I’ve got an economics degree with a minor in actuarial studies…so, insurance and mathematics. And I’ve been in business for the last 18 years or so, right? I was one of the first guys that was selling Australian properties in Russia and China…that was back in 2003…that’s right after the Olympics. I had a big HR company in Australia with close to a thousand people working…then we have a training company that essentially without our certificate, you cannot get a job in construction in Australia. So, we’re one of the biggest ones…we do close to two thousand people a week [for] certification[s].

I was always interested in the concept of timebanking [which is] loosely based on [the Karl] Marx theory…[the] labor theory of value. I was interested in the blockchain space when it started because of [my] mathematics background. So, then opportunity arose to try to actually do something [in the blockchain space]…well, I took it.

What is ChronoBank and what problem(s) are you trying to solve?

Sergei: Essentially it’s timebanking on steroids for the New Age, right?

Me: Can you explain what you mean by “timebanking?”

Sergei: Yeah, I’ll elaborate. Back in the days…back when life wasn’t so complex…and people would say, “ I’ll do something for you. I’ll work for you for an hour and in return you do whatever you got to offer me for an hour.” And essentially we just exchanged the value that way, right? So, for example, if I’m a hunter of mammoth…I go and hunt mammoth…in exchange I get my roots from the guy that collects them, right? Essentially, you just swap [the] value of [the] fruits of your labor. What ChronoBank is trying to do is essentially that, but using new tech.

The problem with timebanking has always been the size of the community that does it.

So, what it means is this…if I’m a dentist and you’re cleaner…if we work in a small community and my kids go to the same school as your kids…I know you for the last 30 years. Obviously the hour of dentist would be worth more than hour of a cleaner, right? But in this case, because we’re friends and we live in the same community, I’ll be happy to discount my hour. For example, you’ll clean for me, I’ll do your teeth. And that wouldn’t be a problem because I personally know you and we’re all friends. And to tell the truth, a lot of hippie communities work like that.

The problem becomes when you expand the size of the community, right? So if you extrapolate to say the whole of…you’re from of the United States…let’s call it United States. And if you live in New York and you ask to discount the hour of someone in California for whatever service, well then you have a problem there, right? And you’ll struggle to discount the hour and that’s where the concept breaks down.

In fact, in US there was a number of attempts to actually do that, you know? And US is actually a pioneer…and still is, I think. Because you got the original one…[the] Cincinnati Time Store…where people who do work actually exchange the hours direct to food…and clothes or whatever, right? The most recent example is in Ithaca…we’ve got Paul Glover…that’s one of my friends…he actually implemented the concept of [the] Ithaca hour.

It was actually possible in the mid-90s to pay mortgage in Ithaca hours. That’s crazy, right?

So, it’s just a guy using his printer at home to print out currency-looking papers, right? And then [he] convinced the local population to actually use it…it’s crazy…it’s amazing, right? The only reason it didn’t go any further [was] because…well, he moved…he moved away from Ithaca to Philadelphia now.

So, coming back to the point, [ChronoBank] it’s a concept of timebanking with a new technology.

Me: Thanks for that explanation. So, what problem is ChronoBank trying to solve?

Sergei: The main problem we’re trying to solve is essentially unfair wages. The problem that we have is in this current state, whether it’s Australia or US, I think the system is unfair and it doesn’t reward the effort. So, what I mean by that? Some people might argue that in a tipping culture, it does reward the effort. But then when you come to America and you go to any restaurant, everybody leaves [a tip] already, right? So, it kind of does [reward the effort], but then everybody’s doing it, so it doesn’t [reward the effort]. And it doesn’t make your waiter more effective in the long term.

What we’re trying to do…the problem we’re solving…is make people realize that their time, their work time in this particular instance, is worth something. And if you’re an effective worker, you don’t have to work 40 hours a week to receive the wage that you want.

If we’re talking about an accountant in an office, right? So, currently what’s happening is because of the salaries…because the effort is not rewarded…no matter what you do, you might get a 13th month pay…as a bonus, right? But the only thing that would show, is a lot of the times…in current corporate culture…is that you’re pretty good at sucking up to boss, right? Because a lot of the times, in a corporate culture, that’s what happens, right? So whoever gets rewarded the most is the one that sucks up to the boss the most, and that’s the one who gets promoted.

Here [at ChronoBank] what we’re trying to do is to make people be able to trade their hours. For example, if you think you’re good enough and you support it with a reputation, then you should be able to charge much more than the average wage for this particular profession. So, if you’re a mega-accountant for example…and the average wage for accountant is about 40 bucks an hour…and you’re a mega-accountant that can do the job of three, well, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be charging 120 [bucks]. You know what I mean? And that puts the ball in each person’s court and creates some accountability for them. And that gives everyone a motivation to strive to be better and more effective. So essentially, what we’re trying to solve is effectiveness in our workplace.

How many people are currently on the team, and are they centralized or distributed?

Sergei: We’ve got at least four offices in four different countries, right? We’ve got at least 40 developers and coders…plus we got 10 to 15 support staff and management. Geographically, [the team] it’s decentralized; it’s not based in any particular country. So, we got presence in Thailand, we got presence in Russia, Germany, Australia…that’s the top four.

What makes your team special relative to other teams in the space?

Sergei: Essentially, we hire the guys…[that are] like the ChronoBank team…

…we’re here for the greater good and the greater idea for the humanity, because what we’re trying to do is freakin’ monumental and mammoth huge.

And what we do, we actually train our own people, so talking about development, we’ll train our own people essentially from scratch, right? And that creates a certain level of loyalty, and it creates a certain level of respect among the team members. And that’s what separates us from the rest of the people in this space.

What are the TIME and Labor Hour (LH) tokens and their purpose?

Sergei: So, TIME token is the limited token. That’s the token that was used in the ICO. And we’re just assigning some mega-cool benefits to it with the products that we’ve got rolling out. For the purpose of the timebanking and purpose of logic of the system and for it to work we use Labor Hour token, right? So, labor hour is exactly what it says…people would get paid within the system in Labor Hours…they would actually cash in and out of it at the ATM side.

Me: And the Labor Hour token will be pegged to each country’s average wage…

Sergei: That’s right. So, the simplest way to get government on your side…is to give government something to be happy about, right? And the obvious thing is an average wage hour of a country. That’s the obvious thing to peg it to…to start with. My vision is to actually derive that data of average wage from the system itself, but while it doesn’t have enough users, you can’t really derive. And the reason being is because I’m assuming [the derived average wage] it’s going to be a lot more than the average wage the government pays. That’s my idea. And there’s no reason why it shouldn’t [work] because of what we spoke about…if your hour is more effective, you should get paid more.

“Hanging loose” with ChronoBank in Sydney — Sergei (left), Me (right)

What are your thoughts about the 0x project?

Sergei: 0x…I think their ICO was like a year ago…close to being to the day I think…it’s within a month, right?

Me: Yeah.

Sergei: So, the space is constantly evolving…

…with the ICOs and with a lot of projects out there…there’s going to be a few projects left…very few left that actually played the long game to start with, right? And 0x is a good project. It’s good because it allows people to build on it…and create a community around it.

I think it’s going to evolve in the future and be great, right? So, it’s one of the projects that will stand the test of time, I hope.

Me: I hope so too.

How are you using the 0x protocol?

Sergei: Remember how I said that we need people to withdraw labor hours into dollars at the ATM side? For that we need an exchange, right? So, you need a spot exchange, maybe even a forward exchange, that looks in the price of the Labor Hour compared to US dollar for example, right? So, to be able to withdraw for that you need [an] exchange. Now, DEX [a decentralized exchange] is an obvious choice because it’s going that way, right? And 0x could be used to provide greater liquidity for the DEX, because the centralized exchanges are notorious for having low liquidity. So, we’d hope to think that would be the first one to actually give some liquidity and some volume to the [0x] exchange game.

Me: So, you’ll be functioning as a 0x relayer?

Sergei: That’s right.

Me: And that’s going to be within the TimeX decentralized exchange?

Sergei: Yes, in TimeX…the reason we’re doing it is we need to convert labor hours into currency. That’s why we need an exchange and that’s why we’re doing it.

Where do you see ChronoBank in 3–5 years?

Sergei: Well, hopefully we’ll work with the government of at least one Southeast Asian country to do a pilot in one of the cities or one of the work areas, and provide a use case for the rest of the world. And the reason it’s Southeast Asia is because Southeast Asia is closer to us…to Australia, to start with, and secondly Southeast Asia is one of the most vulnerable in terms of labor law.

And the governments in Southeast Asia have been proactive in actually looking at ways to improve livelihoods of the people. That’s part of LaborX system…we got pensions implemented in it, right? And using the pensions as a foot in the door for the governments that we talk to…we can really make a difference hopefully. So, within three to five years I would want to see at least one country doing at least 12 [pensions] with us.

Where do you see the 0x ecosystem in 3–5 years?

Sergei: Well, it’s hard for me to judge…to tell the truth, it’s more on the technical side. My CTO would be a better person to ask in regards to that. But from what I know, the more dApps built on the 0x , the more robust the 0x system will be. And the way it’s going, it seems to be going on the correct path.

(Sergei was able to put me in touch his CTO, Mikhail Savchenko, for his additional comment.)

Mikhail: My opinion [is] that…

0x could become a basis for universal value exchange platforms.

Special places where you can change any valuable thing (nevermind if it is goods, services, properties, stocks, art, antiques, hand made, etc) to another one (both tokenized, for sure) the most comfortable way.

Do you have any heroes in the blockchain space?

Sergei: Well, Vitalik [Buterin] is an obvious one, right? He shows the determination to the cause, right? So, no matter what happens, he just keeps doing what needs to be done. And that’s quite marvel, right? So, Vitalik is the obvious one.

Then, any one of the original [Bitcoin] guys. Because at the time, the guys got real frickin’ jail sentences in US for being in the space. And whoever done that, well, I’ll consider a martyr of sorts. You know what I mean? And to tell the truth, they need to be respected, because they were the ones that jumped on the bandwagon and said, “We’re here…and it’s a new movement and it’s a progress for humanity.”

When you’re not working hard on ChronoBank, what do you enjoy doing?

Sergei: Well, to tell truth, right? And this is cool. I like shooting frickin’ targets. Skeet and stationary, and long distance. So yeah, I like shooting and I like spending time with my kids and…the usual.

Where is the best place to find out more about ChronoBank?

Sergei: Just google it. I think we’ve got enough mentions out there for people to go and Google it, and look into what we’re trying to do here.

And that wraps up my interview with Chronobank.io. (Thanks for your time Sergei!) If you’re interested in learning more about Chronobank.io or the 0x project, check out the resources below.


To learn more about ChronoBank…

To learn more about the 0x project…

Visit their: Website | Read their: Whitepaper

Join their community on: Rocket.Chat | Medium | Reddit | Twitter | Facebook | Github

Thanks to Chronobank.io

Brent Oshiro

Written by

Growing Community at 0x

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