Tokenising Time

Blockchain technology as we currently know it was created less than ten years ago by Satoshi Nakamoto. While this technology is still in its infancy, people are continually coming up with ideas on how to utilise it. People have tried to utilise Blockchains for uses ranging from cryptographically secure digital currencies, to tracking the movement of clothes along with a logistics line.
Recently I came across a novel idea - tokenising every minute of your life and making these tokens available for sale to anyone.

JaroCoin, which is a token despite the name, is a brand new token that founder Jaro Šatkevic created as an experiment to see if he could make his time more fairly valued by commoditising it. Jaro explains that although much his time is productive, some people will always try to ask for favours which are a draw down on his time, and thus has a cost. The problem occurs when those people aren’t willing to pay for it. Many of us are familiar with the situation when a friend or colleague asks “do you mind doing me a favour, can you do X for me?”

Partially driven by the desire to reduce this happening and ensure that others value his time fairly, Jaro decided to tokenise his time as an experiment to see what happens.

Jaro runs his own blockchain consulting business so his clients will now pay him in JaroCoins.
His wife, family, and closest friends will all have JaroCoins given to them for free, at the time of his Initial Time Offering (ITO).

Users and potential users of JaroCoin can view an online calendar to see Jaro’s future free time which they can then book using JaroCoin.

All transactions made using JaroCoin will be stored on the Ethereum blockchain.

Jaro will honour JaroCoins for up to 10 years after their purchase date.

The Economics of a token backed by the asset of time

The value of his time, measured as 1 JaroCoin for 1 second of his time, is determined by his income last year (pro-rata).

The value of the token is much more limited than your average cryptocurrency purchased in the hope of a sudden financial gain.
The value of the token, assuming Jaro is still alive and functioning, will be relatively stable and similar to the purchase price.
This is unlike Bitcoin whose price is very volatile.
Fluctuations in the price could occur if his time becomes highly demanded and the secondary market trade JaroCoin. Alternatively, the value of the token on the secondary market could depreciate if word got out that Jaro’s time and services were not as valuable as previously thought.

Practical Considerations

The token will run on the Ethereum network using a smart contract that will document the conditions of use.

Tokens will be allocated for essential activities such as sleeping, washing, and spending time with family. These tokens will be ‘burned’ once used.

How will Jaro prevent people hiring him to do things he doesn’t want to do?

Jaro has thought about various unwanted scenarios that could arise.
He has codified in the smart contract, blanket clauses that he is unwilling to abide by.
He won’t:

1. Do anything illegal according to the laws of his home nation, Lithuania
2. Do anything that goes against his values (moral or ethical)
3. Do anything that would place his business or personal reputation at risk

The rules around the issue of what JaroCoin can and cannot be redeemed against is enforceable not by code but by the application of human judgement, in this circumstance - Jaro’s.
He therefore becomes the blockchain oracle for this token.
With the advent of AI and IOT, it’s unclear how blockchain oracles will function in the future, the scope of their remit, how they will receive real world actions and how they will determine the value of given events. For now, it’s incredibly hard to see how JaroCoin could function in any way other than with the application of human judgement.

In the future, will we all be paid in tokens or coins?

Other entrepreneurs have experimented with tokenising time. Boris Akimov, created a token on the Waves Platform, to tokenise his time.

Earn.com, recently purchased by Coinbase, have experimented with encouraging people to exchange their time in exchange for bitcoins. Earn.com will pay you to reply to strangers requests for your opinions.

It’s easy to imagine a world where people are paid in cryptocurrencies in exchange for their time or even as their right (Universal Basic Income). However for now, JaroCoin is a worthwhile experiment to see what we as a society can learn from it and other similar experiments.