Welcome to the Proof of Usefulness Hackathon spotlight, curated by HackerNoon’s editors to showcase noteworthy tech solutions to real-world problems. Whether you’re a solopreneur, part of an early-stage startup, or a developer building something that truly matters, the Proof of Usefulness Hackathon is your chance to test your product’s utility, get featured on HackerNoon, and compete for $150k+ in prizes. Submit your project to get started! Welcome to the Proof of Usefulness Hackathon spotlight, curated by HackerNoon’s editors to showcase noteworthy tech solutions to real-world problems. Whether you’re a solopreneur, part of an early-stage startup, or a developer building something that truly matters, the Proof of Usefulness Hackathon is your chance to test your product’s utility, get featured on HackerNoon, and compete for $150k+ in prizes. Submit your project to get started! Proof of Usefulness Hackathon spotlight Proof of Usefulness Hackathon spotlight Proof of Usefulness Hackathon Proof of Usefulness Hackathon $150k+ Submit your project to get started Submit your project to get started In this interview, we catch up with Emrah Dagdelen to discuss TimeVyn, a privacy-first SocialFi protocol built on the Sui blockchain. We explore how the project transforms users into "YOUsers" by turning social interactions into ownable, user-controlled assets without compromising personal data. TimeVyn What does TimeVyn do? And why is now the time for it to exist? TimeVyn is a privacy-first SocialFi protocol where users become YOUsers, turning social sharing into ownable, user-controlled visibility on-chain assets, combining social media, NFT ownership, and DeFi liquidity without selling the user or their data. The social layer of TimeVyn creates a sustainable finance owned by YOUsers and feeding YOUsers. Now’s a good time for TimeVyn to exist because, as data privacy concerns peak and the creator economy demands fairer compensation, users are actively seeking alternatives that grant them true ownership over their digital footprint and financial value. What is your traction to date? How many people does TimeVyn reach? TimeVyn was published approximately one month ago and is currently in its early organic growth phase. During this first month, our primary focus has been on technical stability and the refinement of the GHOST Protocol on the Sui blockchain, prioritizing infrastructure over aggressive marketing. Our current reach is minimal as we are just beginning our public outreach, with our recent technical submission to HackerNoon serving as our first major step toward wider visibility. We are targeting a highly specialized audience of privacy advocates and SocialFi early adopters. Who does your TimeVyn serve? What’s exciting about your users and customers? It is not for users, who are treated as unpaid content creators on web2 social platforms,whose personal data is mandatorily requested and subsequently used, leaked, sold, or stolen on web2,whose financial resources are targeted, stolen, or exploited on Web3 platforms through empty hype, promises, or roadmaps,who lack privacy preferences on the blockchain who are treated as unpaid content creators on web2 social platforms, whose personal data is mandatorily requested and subsequently used, leaked, sold, or stolen on web2, whose financial resources are targeted, stolen, or exploited on Web3 platforms through empty hype, promises, or roadmaps, who lack privacy preferences on the blockchain But for the YOUsers Have the freedom to choose whether to share their personal data,Have the right to have a say and a share in the liquidity of the value created by their own posts,Have the luxury of protecting the privacy of the memories and images they share, even on the blockchain.While the user is a product on other platforms, here, the YOUser is the owner of TimeVyn. Have the freedom to choose whether to share their personal data, Have the right to have a say and a share in the liquidity of the value created by their own posts, Have the luxury of protecting the privacy of the memories and images they share, even on the blockchain. While the user is a product on other platforms, here, the YOUser is the owner of TimeVyn. What the techstack behind TimeVyn? TimeVyn leverages the Sui blockchain and the Move language to establish secure, asset-oriented logic for its core smart contracts, ensuring robustness for the GHOST Protocol. On the frontend, the team selected a high-performance stack utilizing React and Vite to manage complex protocol interactions while delivering a seamless experience for YOUsers. What is the traction to date for TimeVyn? As a project in its initial deployment phase, TimeVyn has established its digital footprint with a central hub and a technical whitepaper detailing the GHOST Protocol. While the project is transitioning from a "build-in-silence" phase to public outreach, it has begun cultivating an early organic community via X and YouTube. whitepaper X YouTube TimeVyn scored a 36 proof of usefulness score (https://proofofusefulness.com/reports/timevyn) - how do you feel about that? Needs reassessed or just right? https://proofofusefulness.com/reports/timevyn For a project that has been live for only one month, a score of 36 is a powerful validation of our core logic. It places us firmly in the 'In Business' category, proving that our technical foundation is solid. While industry giants have higher scores due to years of traction, we are excited to see our 'Technical Innovation' and 'Real World Utility' already recognized at such an early stage. It's a perfect baseline to build upon. What excites you about this TimeVyn's potential usefulness? Bringing privacy to Blockchain, and that actually adds social values in blockchain. This makes blockchain social. Finally, making blockchain truly social by allowing users to maintain visibility control over their memories and personal data. (Ghost Protocol by TimeVyn) Financially self-sustaining community formed by the social layer of TimeVyn by the 25% of each YOUser post. Economic sovereignty of YOUsers. Ending, or we can say weakening the fact that digital unpaid labor by rewarding every post with TVYN(the native token of TimeVyn), we are actively shifting the paradigm from users being the product to YOUsers being the owners of the value they create. You can have a social profile with almost all features as you have in web2 social media platforms. TimeVyn bridges the Web2-Web3 Gap Walk us through your most concrete evidence of usefulness. Not vanity metrics or projections - what's the one data point that proves people genuinely need what you've built? The most concrete evidence of this shift is the GHOST Protocol’s ability to manage on-chain records with 'off-sight' visibility control. Within our first month of operation, we have proven that personal memories can be stored on the blockchain as verifiable assets without exposing them to the public eye. GHOST Protocol’s These assets are not static; they can be transferred, listed, and owned by other profiles within the TimeVyn ecosystem and across the Sui blockchain, all while the creator maintains control over visibility. By decoupling ownership from public exposure, TimeVyn effectively solves the ultimate blockchain dilemma: the inherent conflict between transparency and privacy. transferred, listed, and owned transparency and privacy How do you measure genuine user adoption versus "tourists" who sign up but never return? What's your retention story? I don’t look at vanity metrics like 'total sign-ups,' which are often just a graveyard of abandoned accounts. While sign-ups help explore the platform, we measure true retention through 'Social Mining' , the consistent on-chain sharing of memories, artistic works, or life moments. 'Social Mining' , The Platform Uniqueness: The Platform Uniqueness: Unlike typical social networks, TimeVyn is built to protect the uniqueness of content. YOUsers won’t see the same posts repeated across different accounts because our protocol is designed to value and verify original interaction. While the experience feels as intuitive as Instagram, the underlying features are far more advanced and owner-centric. In Instagram, you do not get the return of your social interaction either. Unlike typical social networks uniqueness The NFT Trap vs. The TimeVyn Solution: The NFT Trap vs. The TimeVyn Solution: In traditional NFT marketplaces, you mint a photo, but your privacy is instantly sacrificed to the transparent nature of the blockchain. More importantly, you remain unpaid digital labor, you mint and simply 'hope' to sell. If it doesn't sell, you gain nothing. unpaid digital labor, TimeVyn disrupts this cycle with two core innovations: Ghost Assets: We modified the nature of the blockchain to allow visibility control, solving the privacy paradox.(YOUsers have privacy on chain)Recycled Value (POL): TimeVyn doesn't just burn your fees. It recycles them. Since 25% of every interaction fee is hard-coded into a locked Protocol-Owned Liquidity (POL) pool, every share literally builds the 'price floor' of the ecosystem you own. As YOUsers share, can you imagine what the power of YOUsers can have unlike users in other platforms. Ghost Assets: We modified the nature of the blockchain to allow visibility control, solving the privacy paradox.(YOUsers have privacy on chain) Ghost Assets: Recycled Value (POL): TimeVyn doesn't just burn your fees. It recycles them. Since 25% of every interaction fee is hard-coded into a locked Protocol-Owned Liquidity (POL) pool, every share literally builds the 'price floor' of the ecosystem you own. As YOUsers share, can you imagine what the power of YOUsers can have unlike users in other platforms. Recycled Value (POL): 25% of every interaction fee Protocol-Owned Liquidity (POL) When you realize that your social interaction is building a tangible financial foundation, you stop being a 'tourist' or a 'user' and you stand up as a YOUser. YOUser If we re-score your project in 12 months, which criterion will show the biggest improvement, and what are you doing right now to make that happen? Without a doubt, Liquidity Depth and Economic Resilience, specifically through the Protocol-Owned Liquidity (POL). Liquidity Depth and Economic Resilience Protocol-Owned Liquidity (POL) Currently, we are in the "Genesis" phase. But the engine is already running. Right now, we are implementing a hard-coded mandate: 25% of every single mint fee (income from "Today" or "Nostalgia" assets) is diverted directly into the TVYN liquidity pool. 25% of every single mint fee What we are doing right now: What we are doing right now: Hard-Coded Growth: We have ensured that the protocol's treasury is inaccessible to any individual, including the founders. The growth of the liquidity pool is a mathematical certainty tied to user interaction, not a promise made in a roadmap.Fair Distribution: By avoiding pre-mines and ICOs, we are ensuring that TVYN is earned through Proof of Lived Time, actual sociall contribution.Building the Floor: Every time a YOUser shares a photo, they aren't just "posting content", they are acting as a liquidity provider for their own ecosystem. Hard-Coded Growth: We have ensured that the protocol's treasury is inaccessible to any individual, including the founders. The growth of the liquidity pool is a mathematical certainty tied to user interaction, not a promise made in a roadmap. Hard-Coded Growth: Fair Distribution: By avoiding pre-mines and ICOs, we are ensuring that TVYN is earned through Proof of Lived Time, actual sociall contribution. Fair Distribution: Proof of Lived Time, Building the Floor: Every time a YOUser shares a photo, they aren't just "posting content", they are acting as a liquidity provider for their own ecosystem. Building the Floor: In 12 months, as our community grows, these fractional contributions will have built a massive, un-ruggable price floor for the TVYN token. Our YOUsers won't just be "early adopters"; they will be recognized as the pioneers of the movement against digital unpaid labor. We are turning social interaction from a corporate harvest into a sovereign asset class. pioneers of the movement against digital unpaid labor How Did You Hear About HackerNoon? Share With Us About Your Experience With HackerNoon. I was struggling to introduce TimeVyn on mainstream social platforms. (I am still struggling btw :) I quickly realized that organic reach is broken for me; I only have 230 followers on X, and TimeVyn has just 5. I found out in TimeVyn's first month since launch that introducing it to the world is harder than building. Anyway, I initially looked into PR distribution services like Chainwire, but I found them prohibitively expensive. More importantly, those platforms often prioritize capital over innovation; if you have the money, you get published, regardless of how hollow the idea might be. If you have a good idea and a good project and don't have money, then you are not eligible to be published. Capital is published there, not projects or ideas. (This is my opinion, what I sensed) I felt that buying visibility would be a betrayal of TimeVyn’s core philosophy. Why? Because I’ve spent the last 9 months (where days and nights became a blur) building a protocol that stands against current problems of social media platforms, blockchain privacy problems, and the reasons above.... The most dangerous part is that I have the technical system ready to do exactly what scammers do. Technically, I could have minted $25,000 worth of TVYN, pointed to our fully functional platform as bait, manufactured 'artificial hype' to collect user funds, and disappeared—just like the hundreds of rug-pulls we see daily. Instead, I stayed true to the code and placed the YOUser at the center by launching TimeVyn with a total of 400 TVYN and 20 SUI. TimeVyn does not sell tokens, roadmaps, or hype; it provides a protocol for data sovereignty and mathematical security. So why should I pay for a polished introduction on a service like Chainwire? If the mission is to end digital exploitation and empower the individual, the idea itself must be strong enough to survive without a $1399 price tag on its first impression. YOUser I actually trust what I have built, and it is open. Anyway 🙂 (it’s a bit long), but that’s how I discovered HackerNoon. I asked an AI to recommend publishing platforms, and that’s how I found it. What immediately stood out to me was the emphasis on originality and editorial standards. I submitted my piece, and it was reviewed by an editor—not to sell anything, but to judge whether the idea was unique and worth publishing. And honestly, I love that. My thinking, my logic, and my YOUser philosophy—TimeVyn included—are evaluated by people, not by the size of my bank account. YOUser You mentioned prioritizing infrastructure over aggressive marketing in your first month. What specific milestones in the GHOST Protocol development gave you the confidence to start your public outreach now? I first started with a simple idea inspired by time and space (I easily get lost in this topic—traveling back, moving through time…). Anyway, I began wondering: what if people could share memories from the past and see how those memories interact with each other? At first, I thought of it as a simple project. People sharing their past. But then I realized—you can already do that on Instagram. So it had to be different. I started thinking about how to make it unique. First, I needed a logo—something that places a person at the center of a journey through time. What people share from their past could be visualized on the website, monitored through an interactive screen. Then I thought: why not include the present as well? In TimeVyn, you can share either your past or your today. I developed two complete designs, concepts, and terms for these different definitions of time. For example, TimeMate for past memories (you share a memory from 1995, I share one too, and the algorithm makes us TimeMates on-chain), or Today365 (a gift from your present self to your future self). TimeMate Today365 After completing the concept, I kept questioning myself: why would people come here to share? Then—bingo. On platforms like Instagram, people don’t earn anything. The platform does. Their data is leaked, sold, or used by third parties. That’s when I decided to integrate blockchain into TimeVyn. But then another problem appeared. What if I share a family photo, or something deeply personal? Another idea sparked: Ghost Asset. But how? Ghost Asset If what you share on-chain is treated as an object (and you can do whatever you want with an object), then you can control that object’s properties. I chose to integrate Sui because of its object-centric architecture. By treating each memory as a programmable object, I could define custom visibility rules. This made it possible to create an asset that is cryptographically verifiable and transferable, yet remains encrypted and “off-sight” to the public until the owner decides otherwise. Sui The full story and system are much longer. But to sum it up—this is it. With a focus on "YOUsers" rather than traditional users, how do you plan to incentivize the first wave of content creators to migrate from established Web2 platforms to TimeVyn? I don’t know. I built something, but as my brother says, I lack introduction and marketing. I’m working on that. That’s actually why I’m writing here right now. People love hype, and they’re skeptical of anything new. Most don’t even try—or read. Nobody was reading the Bitcoin whitepaper in 2008, 2009, 2010, or 2011. The "Proof of Usefulness" score highlights technical innovation. How does the Move language specifically enable the privacy features of TimeVyn that other blockchains might struggle to support? Honestly, I chose Move on Sui for a very simple reason, hinted at above: it allows a level of object-centric sovereignty that other blockchains struggle with. On many chains, transparency is effectively “all or nothing,” because the ledger is designed to expose everything by default. Once you mint an asset there, visibility is largely out of your control. This is where Move’s logic specifically enables our privacy features. The power of the initial mint. The power of the initial mint. At the moment of creation, the YOUser makes a definitive choice: Universal or Ghost. If you choose Ghost Mode, TimeVyn wraps the data inside an object with “off-sight” logic from the very first second. Universal Ghost No accidental exposure. No accidental exposure. Because the rules are hard-coded during the minting process, the blockchain can verify ownership and allow transfers, but it cannot leak the content. The visibility properties are fixed by the GHOST Protocol’s logic. Integrity of the code. Integrity of the code. Unlike other chains that rely on complex external encryption layers—which can sometimes be bypassed—Move ensures that if an asset is born as a Ghost, it remains “off-sight” to the public eye as a fundamental property of the object. This at-mint (birth-moment) decision is what gives the YOUser true sovereignty. You’re not hoping a platform keeps your secret—you know the code is forced to, because you created the asset that way. You decide whether it is a Universal asset or a Ghost asset. Meet our sponsors Meet our sponsors Meet our sponsors Bright Data: Bright Data is the leading web data infrastructure company, empowering over 20,000 organizations with ethical, scalable access to real-time public web information. From startups to industry leaders, we deliver the datasets that fuel AI innovation and real-world impact. Ready to unlock the web? Learn more at brightdata.com. Bright Data: Bright Data is the leading web data infrastructure company, empowering over 20,000 organizations with ethical, scalable access to real-time public web information. From startups to industry leaders, we deliver the datasets that fuel AI innovation and real-world impact. Ready to unlock the web? Learn more at brightdata.com. Bright Data: brightdata.com Neo4j: GraphRAG combines retrieval-augmented generation with graph-native context, allowing LLMs to reason over structured relationships instead of just documents. With Neo4j, you can build GraphRAG pipelines that connect your data and surface clearer insights. Learn more. Neo4j: GraphRAG combines retrieval-augmented generation with graph-native context, allowing LLMs to reason over structured relationships instead of just documents. With Neo4j, you can build GraphRAG pipelines that connect your data and surface clearer insights. Learn more. 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