The human-anchoring layer for an AI-dominant economy.
1 TIME = 1 verified hour of human existence The dollar is a political unit. The hour is a biological unit. TIME Protocol is the first monetary protocol built on the latter.
TIME Protocol is a monetary primitive built on biological scarcity. Every verified human on earth receives exactly 24 TIME per day — no more, no less. That ceiling is not a governance parameter. It is a physical law.
TIME is minted only when real work is contracted, verified, and paid for — or streamed as a daily birthright to every verified human. It is the first labor-backed stable asset: collateralized by verified human productivity and real payments, denominated in the one resource every human holds in precisely equal daily supply.
Bitcoin converts energy into scarcity. TIME converts verified human contribution into money.
USD stablecoins are stable against a currency. TIME is stable against civilization's primary scarce asset: human life-hours.
Dollar-pegged stablecoins stabilize one exchange rate: token-to-dollar. They do not stabilize purchasing power, labor value, local-currency value, or human economic opportunity. The honest name for them is dollarcoins — tokenized offshore dollar liquidity.
TIME Protocol offers a different reference unit: the verified human hour. Its scarcity is biological, not mathematical, geological, or political:
| Scarcity type | Example | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Mathematical | Bitcoin (21M cap) | Algorithm |
| Geological | Gold | Earth deposits |
| Political | Fiat currency | Central bank |
| Biological | TIME (24h/day/human) | Physical law |
No central bank can print more hours. No government can extend the length of a day. No amount of capital can purchase more human time.
| Primitive | Mechanism | Daily limit |
|---|---|---|
| Retroactive Birthright | Age × 365 TIME at first verification, governance-bound | One-time genesis grant |
| Daily UBI | 1 TIME/day streamed continuously to all verified humans | 1 TIME |
| Work TIME | Minted only when real payment is received for verified work | Up to 23 TIME |
| Volunteer TIME | Minted when a bonded organization sponsors hours | Within 24 TIME total |
Hard cap: 24 TIME per verified human per day — enforced on-chain, non-overridable by any governance action.
retroactive_birthright_TIME = age_in_years × 365
e.g. 40 years × 365 = 14,600 TIME at first verification
Every verified human enters the protocol with capital proportional to their lived experience. The grant is governance-bound at verification and unlocks 1:1 as work-backed TIME is earned (the Liquidity Ladder). Anti-speculation by design.
The protocol does not create human time. It recognizes it.
HumanBond V2 — World Chain Mainnet
| Contract | Address |
|---|---|
| HumanBond | 0x6494daa4e693F748Eb0a16041ECfCEd51392bB13 |
| TIME Token (ERC-20) | 0x261f6d89491cbadff7813303363a514f4b226a82 |
| VowNFT (ERC-721) | 0xa1650cc531c2780fb8c006f4b8d314018f7f9ac9 |
| MilestoneNFT (ERC-721) | 0x0a2759241d0cb610e3e61db351813ddf8a52f14c |
HumanBond Mini App — live in World App store · search HumanBond
Governance Agent — in development on Soroban (Stellar) · SCF Build Award Q3 2026
| App | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|
| HumanBond | ✅ Live | Two-person partnership protocol. 50/50 TIME income split. Partnership Registry API for dating platforms. |
| VolunteerPROOF | 🔨 In development | Civic contribution credentialing. Political campaign volunteer records. Soulbound NFTs. |
| Governance Agent | 🔨 In development (Soroban) | Quadratic allocation, jurisdictional map, Local Multiplier, AI-assisted governance. |
| Utility Concierge | 📋 Specified | Community utility governance. Anti-authoritarian infrastructure. Oslo Freedom Forum 2027. |
TIME-Protocol/
├── README.md ← You are here
├── PROJECT-MAP.md ← Protocol stack and reference app map
├── WHITEPAPER.md ← Full technical and economic whitepaper
├── docs/
│ ├── tokenomics.md ← Issuance, scarcity, monetary design
│ ├── identity-stack.md ← Tiered Humanity Stack (Tier 0–3)
│ ├── reputation-score.md ← Five-dimension reputation architecture
│ ├── governance-agent.md ← Governance Agent specification
│ ├── utility-concierge.md ← Utility Concierge + persistence mechanisms
│ ├── humanbond.md ← HumanBond + Partnership Registry
│ ├── volunteerproof.md ← VolunteerPROOF + political campaigns
│ ├── liquidity-ladder.md ← Age Grant unlock mechanics
│ ├── local-multiplier.md ← Community economic health metric
│ ├── stablecoin-thesis.md ← Dollar stablecoin critique
│ ├── monetary-principles.md ← Core monetary design principles
│ ├── canon.md ← Book trilogy intellectual foundation
│ ├── deployments.md ← Live contract addresses
│ └── scf-build-award.md ← SCF Build Award application summary
├── contracts/
│ └── README.md ← Contract specifications
└── LICENSE
| Event | Date | Deliverable |
|---|---|---|
| ETHGlobal Lisbon | July 24–26, 2026 | HumanBond live demo; Age Grant UI; Governance Agent UI; hackathon prizes |
| SCF Build Award | Q3 2026 | Governance Agent on Soroban; $150K award |
| Valley of the Commons | Governance Week 2026 | Pop-up city pilot; Local Multiplier live; tiered ID |
| Oslo Freedom Forum | 2027 | Utility Concierge debut as anti-authoritarian infrastructure |
TIME Protocol is the technical implementation of a three-book intellectual project by Herb Stephens:
| Book | Diagnosis | Protocol response |
|---|---|---|
| The Lie Factory (live on Amazon) | Information weaponized to manufacture consent | Governance Agent as anti-lie infrastructure |
| The Lie of Investing (manuscript complete) | Capital extraction masquerading as wealth creation | Work-backed TIME, Local Multiplier, Age Grant |
| The Great Reset (manuscript complete) | Civilizational transition is necessary and possible | TIME Protocol as coordination layer; 2034 Schelling point |
Herb Stephens — Co-Founder, Democracy Earth Foundation (with Santiago Siri). Creator of Democracy OS and Proof of Humanity. Author of The Lie Factory. herb@democracy.earth
Franco — Frontend / MiniKit. Lead developer, HumanBond Mini App.
Leticia — Smart contracts. HumanBond V2 deployed and verified on World Chain Mainnet.
MIT — all code open source. All Soroban contracts published under MIT upon deployment.
democracy.earth · github.com/herbstephens/TIME-Protocol · June 2026