‘Issuing tokens on a blockchain is a simple matter,’ says Sergei Sergienko, CEO of ChronoBank — the ‘Uber of Time’, which will connect freelancers with employers to side-step the gatekeepers to the short-term recruitment industry. ‘In fact, we will be doing this on several different platforms when we launch ChronoBank and start minting Labour Hour tokens.’

ChronoBank’s use of time-based cryptocurrencies sets it apart from other initiatives, which typically use a free-floating crypto token as payment. Labour Hour (LH) tokens, by contrast, will track hourly wages in their countries of origin, and thus will be a stable store of value. These will be created on multiple different blockchains, including Waves, Ethereum, Classic and potentially bitcoin, via the Omni layer. ‘But for the core TIME token, which we will distribute to our investors after the ICO, we have opted solely for Ethereum,’ continues Sergienko.

There were a number of key reasons for this choice, he says. ‘Perhaps most importantly, we want smart contract capability and Ethereum is the only way to go for this. We want to remove human activity and error as much as possible from the trading and payout mechanisms. Every time LH tokens are traded on our LaborX exchange, as organisations buy labour, holders will receive a payout. We intend to automate that as much as we can. Ethereum is the only mature smart contracts platform out there, so this choice is a no-brainer to us.’

As a platform that is well-known in the cryptocurrency world, Ethereum enjoys a certain prominence. But more than that, it has some brand recognition in the wider world. ‘Basically if you ask someone what bitcoin is, they will probably have some idea nowadays. Ask them if they know another cryptocurrency and you’ll probably get a blank look in return. But Ethereum is breaking into the mainstream, it’s getting more and more attention. It won’t be long before it gains greater traction, and ChronoBank wants to be at the forefront of that, offering real-world use cases.’

There are two further factors that go hand-in-hand with this prominence in the crypto-sphere. ‘Firstly, Ethereum has excellent liquidity on exchanges, second only to bitcoin. This is important. We need that liquidity and interest to create a platform where tokens can trade efficiently, with a minimum of slippage. There’s no point saving money in one area if you’re going to have to pay it back in poor spreads. This is critical to us.’ Second is the reason for that liquidity, which is not only the overall awareness of Ethereum but also its highly active community. ‘Ethereum’s community is large, global and very motivated. They are engaged in the ecosystem, able to critique projects like ours in detail, and give us useful feedback. They will keep us on our toes. There are some extremely talented people out there working with Ethereum, and that gives us confidence that our project will succeed from a technical point of view.’

The ChronoBank ICO is currently in progress. Accepted currencies include BTC, ETH, WAVES and several others.