You can spend your whole life accumulating wealth, but in the end be poorer than a child born in an African village: but that child will have something you don’t anymore. Time.

No one can argue that time is something that irrevocably disappears with every moment. This is clear and understood by everyone. But, alas, this is one of those truths where the understanding of it barely ever affects how people behave. People have a tendency to waste time.

In the material world, you can buy more stuff (things, services, pleasures) in one of two ways: by earning more money or reducing costs.

You can also increase the amount of time you have in two ways. You can pay millions to doctors who will help to extend your life for a few years. But even if you pay billions, you won’t be able to live twice as long (at least not yet).

There is a second way — which is to use the time you have as efficiently as possible. And, for a long time, people have had ideas of how to solve this problem by combining them into the science of managing their time capital, or [**time management**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_management). Sometimes people mistakenly believe that time management teaches them how to do more. In fact, time management is the science of “what NOT to do.” It is the science of setting priorities, of separating what is important from what is secondary.

Most office workers don’t need an office to work, and the fact that we still go to one every day has more to do with our weak self-discipline.

Just think. How many hours does a full-time worker spend every day to get to and from work? On average, 1–2 hours a day. This, during a lifetime, can add up to years. It’s the same as moving back and forth for your education. This is a time that could be spent with those close to you or spent on personal development.

Every day, the modern world of high technology gives us new tools for interacting with time.

The movie [**In Time**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Time) shows a world in which time becomes the sole form of money. In 2011, it was just science-fiction, but now, with the introduction of [**blockchain**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain) and [**smart-contracts**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_contract) into everyday life, this idea has become technically feasible. For example, the startup [**Era Swap**](https://eraswaptoken.io) creates an eco-system that will be built on the idea of time-trading: Freelancers will be able to sell their time with maximum efficiency, and a platform for remote learning will save time spent on acquiring knowledge.

Vansh Tah, blockchain developer at Era Swap, said:

> Every project or post which is posted on Time Swapper platform is stored as asset in a blockchain. The files shared is using IPFSaas that is IPFS as a service to store references in the blockchain rather than storing the whole data. Every project budget is stored in a smart contract to avoid insecurities. Think of an immutable system that is what we are, any data present in the system is immutable, cannot be penetrated in any manner making it secure and easy to trust on.

There are loads of examples; take a closer look. The owners of gold cards and those flying business class are the first to register for a flight, the first to board and to get off. Consumer loans do not help you save money, but quickly start using something which makes you ultimately pay more money.

Instead of making lunch yourself, you can eat in a restaurant. It may be more expensive money-wise, but you save your time by doing it. Almost all modern games and their derivatives are free to play, but they are built on the principle of selling time — you can farm the necessary items for days, or you can buy them, which saves you time.

Viewing mandatory advertising on video services like [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com) — isn’t this actually an exchange of your time for money for the owners of the service? The same thing goes for the advertisements we listen to between songs on the radio or watch between TV programs. Do not buy into the idea that radio and television are free. You pay for them with the most valuable thing you have — time.

A positive conclusion taken from all these reflections is that, in the modern world, time really has become a regular target for commerce, and new business models can, and should be built based on time.

You can sell speed, priority of service, reduction of processing time — and users who value their time will pay for these added values. Those who want to save money (and that is the vast majority, as most people don’t know what to do with their free time), will sell their time for money. For example, you can give them something for free by dunking it deeply into the sauce of intrusive advertising.

But everything moves on. We are on the verge of the birth of a new business model: Soon there will be services that will become middlemen between those who value time and value money. If an hour of your time costs $1000, wouldn’t you pay $100 to not lose it waiting in line? And if an hour of your time costs $5, wouldn’t you take $10 so that a fat cat can move ahead of you?

You can predict the emergence of professions that will be reduced to the following: a person will take all sorts of spots in lines, and then sell them to those who are in a hurry. There will be time-based banks and time-based credit. And science-fiction will become reality.

Target

The Verge

YouTube

Winner of Noonies 2020 for the award Hacker Noon Contributor of the Year - CRYPTO.

Time Can Be a New Type of Currency

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