Time is our most valuable asset. We each hold a limited supply of time, but how we use it, what we use it for and for what price we sell it sometimes feels out of our control.

Blockchain technology has brought the power of immutability and trustlessness to individuals. We’ve leveraged this technology to elevate and monetize many aspects of daily life:

• Financial services → DeFi
• Art → NFTs
• Companies → DAOs

Yet, time has not made the list. Newt, the experiments arm of the Aave Companies, decided it was, well, about time (pun intended kek).

Introducing, Newt: Aika.

Following in the etymological footsteps of the Aave Companies (”aave” means ghost in Finnish), Aika is the Finnish word for “time”. Let’s dig into why and how putting time on-chain will revolutionize how people make a living 👇

On time and on-chain

Time is the perfect complement to a growing segment of Web3: the future of earning.

DAOs, bounties, grants, task boards, and the gig economy has permanently changed the concept of earning a living in the modern world.

The self-sovereign individual has complete control of their time, and if given a way to not only organize it but also monetize it, then the value unlocked can be genuinely life-changing.

How it would work:

Simply put, with Aika, your time can be minted and sold as NFTs on Polygon, immutably recording events and your work on the blockchain.

“Ayo, we put time on the blockchain” - 0xjim

Aika brings in a wealth of new options, providing you the ability to take control of your time and how you monetize it.

For guilds, service DAOs, and other crypto-native organizations, Aika can be an easy way to standardize your services, e.g., receive X services for Y amount of hours for Z remuneration. Source business from a global market and easily record and track that completed business.

What it unlocks:

• Dynamic price discovery for your time: how much is your time actually worth? Let the market decide.
• Commemorate milestones: store iconic moments in time on-chain for memorabilia.
• Support up-and-coming individuals: become a patron to rising stars whose time may rise in demand in the future.
• Global reach: immediate access to the entire world.
• On-chain attestation: an immutable record that you completed a task which future buyers can then use to verify your services.

Time to Party 🥳

Beyond income generation, other use cases may arise for Aika: restaurant reservations, personal meetings (Web3 Calendly anyone?), and car-sharing. Everything we do requires time, so the possibilities are pretty endless!

Extension

In the spirit of Web3, Newt is committed to building with full transparency alongside the community. We shipped a smol primitive that still needs work to achieve the vision we have for Aika.

Some ideas include:

• Streaming payments with Superfluid for time
• DAO contributor payout tools
• Sourcing contributors for DAOs
• Reputation system for time minters (e.g., star rating, reviews)
• Arbitration/dispute resolution between time minters and buyers
• Including more tokens for payment (e.g., DAO tokens)
• Creating a gifting economy with Time NFTs

Join the Newt Rally

This is the first step in a long journey. However, we know one thing is for sure, this is a future that we will build together, and we’d love for you to be a part of it.

• Check out Newt: Aika here: https://aika.market
• Check out the code and docs: https://github.com/WeAreNewt/NonFungibleTime
• If you’re interested in contributing, join the Newt Discord: discord.gg/newt

LFG, Newts!