Timetech and the evolution of a socially conscious blockchain
Asheesh Khaneja — Chief Technology Advisor — Timetech Foundation
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive, but the one most responsive to change” — Leon C Megginson
The idea of exchanging services for time credits isn’t new . It has existed in various flavors for millennia. What is new is technology that can turn time — our most precious commodity and universal equalizer — into something that could be exchanged easily by people across the globe.
When Andy, the founder of timetech, explained it to me about a year ago, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It was as if my twenty-five years in software had been preparing me for this. In an era of volatile market fluctuations, the value of time has stood as constant as the north star. The only thing we can change is the way we use it.
We deliberated over the great innovations that were gathering dust and why. The realization that a time exchange platform could be a harbinger to real social experiences, not ‘sharing’ and ‘liking’ brags on digital platforms, quickly dawned on us. We knew that exchanging new skills and reviving old ones would have a ripple effect into local economies, society, and global movements if we could enable mass adoption. Hourvillage was born.
Hourvillage took roots as a centralized mobile application that allows users to join a time exchange platform. The simple and intuitive UI/UX enables a varied demographic of users to create services they wish to give and search listings of activities they wish to receive. Once this matching of is completed, an ‘hourtime’ credit is added to the giver’s account and deducted from the receiver. Simple. We built the minimum viable product and started testing it with multiple sample groups.
The feedback from everyone, millennials to seniors, from corporates to non-profit agencies, was overwhelmingly positive. But it wasn’t faultless. Shortfalls in design became apparent and the universality of such an exchange was limited by its technology. Should hourvillage be a localized application or does this prohibit our ability to scale and build a global community? The centralized microservices architecture for the mobile application shackled us to one platform, but we saw an opportunity to bring together existing time exchange communities, however small, to create a network effect for time exchange. We needed future-proof technology. We needed blockchain.
To blockchain or not to blockchain — That is the question!
Blockchain and tokens seeped into our conversation when user feedback affirmed some key concerns on trust, indelibility, user privacy and ownership of time credits. Blockchain not only provides an economic benefit but seeds an active community, unlike a traditional IPO, and creates an inherent trust mechanism that does not have dependencies to any government, local body or organization claiming to be the central repository of an individual’s time.
Tokens solve a very important technical challenge for us: how to incentivize the adoption of time currency and create an accepted exchange. Time tokenomics help build communities who believe in timetech tokens and are motivated to develop their own innovative platforms to facilitate and encourage time exchange on our blockchain. Time is not the monopoly of any individual or organization. The world is ready for a true time currency and its arrival is imminent. We provide the platform,platform; the community molds the blockchain and its impact.
Timetech is the evolution of timesharing, inspired by social need, driven by users and shaped by blockchain technology. The inherent trust built into our time currency, coupled with global trends towards greater experiences, create a uniquen opportunity for timetech to become the first mass-adopted time currency. Our time has come!
