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Show HN: Bliive – Using your free time as currency

40 points| murilomafra | 11 years ago |bliive.com | reply

23 comments

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[+] johnchristopher|11 years ago|reply
the Bliive guys are really nice. I contacted them some months ago to know if they would open-source the stack and they quickly replied (that they couldn't yet though).

I am involved (until the next meeting, I plan to resign from the managing committee) in a LETS (local exchange trading system) and one of the benefits we seek is to (re)create "social link" between people of the same geographic community.

Bliive doesn't put the accent on that, it seems to rely on internet/skype for contact.

Timebanking is an interesting topic. In the Dane County they are using it for some young offenders instead of criminally charging them. http://danecountytimebank.org/projects/dctb-youth-court-comm...

[+] murilomafra|11 years ago|reply
Hey John, Good to see you again.

Timebanking is a great topic. Thanks for your link, its very interesting.

[+] rismay|11 years ago|reply
I (briefly) took tax law in college. In the US, if you are a professional and you offer your services for free, there could be a tax liability past a certain amount of time. I always thought this had interesting complications for time banks. Anybody look into this?
[+] munro|11 years ago|reply
Nice, I've been wanting this, except for online things. Like when I hit a road block with Idris/Haskell, I wish I could just talk to someone about what I'm thinking. And I also enjoy offering up my expertise, usually in #javascript, #angularjs, or #haskell.

As a side note, #haskell is my favorite channel on IRC, everyone is very helpful. But I would love to pick someone's brain for an hour.

[+] sbspalding|11 years ago|reply
This is a cool idea in a similar vein to some of the other barter economy sites that have come out.

One question, does the transfer of Time Money happen before or after the actual real-world exchange? I am just wondering what types of barriers are put in place to keep everyone in the system honest.

Great great and I wish you the best!

[+] murilomafra|11 years ago|reply
Hey sbspalding, The transfer happens after the real-world exchange. And after the the exchange you can rate the other user or report the activity. Your profile show how many good votes you have and you can connect with other medias to show you as a reliable person.

Thanks a lot for your support.

[+] bybjorn|11 years ago|reply
Cool site! If I signed up for it, and exchanged my web development services for e.g. someone painting my house, I wonder how I'd settle that with my government. Just doing it, and not writing it up as something taxable would be illegal, so do one just make up an amount and then pay the taxman a % of that amount?
[+] _almosnow|11 years ago|reply
How would it be illegal for someone to paint your house for free?
[+] rmsaksida|11 years ago|reply
I love the idea! I think it has great potential.

Some criticism: I think the website needs polish. It looks a little amateur, which might put off some users. And it took me a while to understand what it was about.

[+] estefan|11 years ago|reply
Nice idea, but the bartering is a shame. Volunteering can make you live longer apparently, so why not encourage people to give freely?
[+] masukomi|11 years ago|reply
just because you'd earn "TimeMoney" from it doesn't mean you would spend it. It's nice to know that what I would give had some potential mechanism for guaranteeing a possible return, even if i never invoked that. Just like a money back guarantee on a product. It's nice to have.
[+] housparty|11 years ago|reply
I see big things for this company
[+] egsec|11 years ago|reply
bartering section on craigslist?