Now that you have found TimeDAO, you might be wondering what TimeDAO is and how it works. Rest assured, you will have answers to both of these questions in this article. To begin with, TimeDAO is a trustless and decentralized platform that allows you to send data and files into the future through a system built to stand the test of time. TimeDAO safely stores your most important keepsakes and assets in a decentralized format by providing a time-locking service that remains operational.
The end goal is to offer you apps with time-locking capabilities including TimeCapsules and time-locked crypto wallets, simply known as TimeWallets.
An Overview of TimeDAO
When we think about sending digital valuables into the future, our first obsession is to make sure we are able to access them once the waiting period is over. According to a McKinsey report, the average lifespan of a company is less than 18 years, and it’s decreasing over time. So how do we make sure to receive the video we send to ourselves 40 years into the future?
To resolve this issue, TimeDAO’s mission is to create autonomous products unaffected by business failure. In order to create an autonomous and self-serve set of products based on time-locking, TimeDAO’s ecosystem relies on a DAO to collect payments, manage funds, and to maintain itself in good condition.
You will find out further in this article how TimeDAO achieves to create this time-locking service that stands the test of time, thanks to the DAO. Now, let’s dive a little deeper into TimeDAO’s core principles and get to know more about the ecosystem, the purpose of the project and its governance structure.
The TimeDAO Ecosystem
TimeDAO offers a trustless and time-proof time-locking service integrable within apps. The platform itself powers two Dapps, called TimeApps. They are TimeCapsule and TimeWallet. The team is working on more apps that will be part of the ecosystem in the future.
TimeCapsule, the first TimeApp, will function through a web application. This way, users can access their capsules using a proper graphical interface, both storing and sending their digital valuables into the future such as pictures, text, videos, audio, music, and more. Users can maintain access to their capsules by login in the app with their TimeCapsule credentials at any time. These credentials will also enable the recovery of the digital valuables when the time-lock countdown ends. Finally, the stored digital content is shareable by passing the capsule credentials along.
TimeWallet, the second TimeApp, functions like a piggy bank. It enables us to safely send money into the future, more specifically cryptocurrency. The TimeWallet can contain various currencies and unlocks at the date we set it to open. Although the TimeWallet prevents us from withdrawing funds until then, we can always add more funds to it since we have access to our wallets’ public keys. This forces users to hold their crypto through emotional journeys and save money in a way that traditional saving apps can’t. Finally, the TimeWallet will be available through a web application, and the users will have credentials to access their own. To send the TimeWallet to someone else, the user may share the credentials with that person.
Both of the TimeApps mentioned above drive the TimeDAO ecosystem as the users of these apps will pay fees routed towards the DAO to sustain its operations and pay the service providers if necessary. Also, to add value to the ecosystem, TimeApps will be easily accessible to developers thanks to a robust JavaScript-based SDK. It will be available on the TimeDAO GitHub soon and allow for easy third-party integration of our resilient time-locking service within other apps.
Serving The Purpose of TimeDAO
TimeDAO has one explicit purpose. This purpose is to ensure that the ecosystem and its TimeApps will successfully deal with future unforeseen challenges and make sure the time-locking service continues to adapt in perpetuity.
Now that we understand the importance of resilience for TimeApps to last for decades, let’s have a look at the three key components required to send digital content into the future.
The Key Components of a Resilient Time-Locking Service
The first key component to send digital valuables to the future is the decentralized cloud storage. TimeDAO relies on providers such as STORJ to store the TimeCapsules’ content. Decentralized cloud storage technology breaks data into fragments and scatters them across a variety of cloud-based storage devices, rather than centrally storing in any one cloud. This process helps to insulate the data against center-level failures, which increases the service’s resilience for the long run.
The second key component is a Layer 2 blockchain solution. All information regarding the creation and recovery of TimeApps, including credentials, storage calling IDs, payment collection creation dates and opening dates registers forever on the Layer 2 blockchain, currently Dai. The block timestamp validates opening dates.
Finally, binaries, in this case a React app and a node.js server, will help bridge the gap between the TimeApp client and the previous components. They make up for the third key component of the time-locking service as they help drive the usability of all TimeApps within the ecosystem.
Governance
Storing your most important keepsakes and assets while ensuring that the time-locking solution stands the test of time is no easy task to achieve. As mentioned earlier, TimeDAO solves this challenge by automating processes using a Decentralized Autonomous Organization.
This DAO is in charge of multiple financial tasks such as collecting payments, paying service providers (i.e. STORJ), managing airdrops and liquidity mining rewards, rewarding the maintenance system, paying the team members, and accumulating funds in the DAO vault for other expenses. Upon request, all of the above tasks automatically execute an arrangement of code that defines them. This arrangement, known as smart contracts, can evolve over time through a voting process.
All of this sounds great, but what happens if, later on, TimeDAO requires maintenance actions unknown to the smart contracts? Keep reading, we’re getting there.
What Happens When TimeDAO Faces a Challenge?
Going through changes over time means responding to obstacles in the future that you and I can’t possibly be aware of in the present moment. So how does TimeDAO conquer unpredictable technological challenges in the future? By using the TimeCouncil, a group of members elected by the $TDAO token holders.
The TimeCouncil members are responsible to anticipate challenges TimeDAO might face, in exchange of rewards provided by the DAO itself. In other words, they will diagnose the situation, evaluate the viable options to upgrade the DAO with budgets, and finally submit these options to a vote through the DAO. Once the token holders agree on the favorable option, the TimeCouncil takes the responsibility to hire the talent that will carry out all necessary tasks to execute the upgrades.
Here’s a good example. Imagine that in 10 years, STORJ — which is TimeCapsule’s decentralized cloud storage provider — becomes obsolete and needs a replacement. The TimeCouncil members, rewarded to be aware of potential problems, would then step in to address the issue.
The TimeCouncil would then propose a set of new decentralized cloud storage providers that use a more modern stack. The next step would be to generate documentation including budgeting about these providers, and submit these proposals to a general vote among the $TDAO token holders. Once the token holders agree on the replacing provider, it’s on the TimeCouncil members to execute the voted option by hiring developers, validating their outcomes, publishing source code to the appropriate repository, transmitting payments for the completed work through the DAO’s funds, etc.
TimeDAO’s Complete Decentralization
By 2024, the DAO will be entirely community ran, which is the optimal strategy for fostering future development in comparison to using a centralized private company. Relying on the community guarantees longevity and makes TimeDAO much like a public service, as the community will own the products they use in a decentralized way. Finally, the DAO ensures an ethical and fair distribution, while it enables anyone to participate in the governance of the project.
Now that you understand TimeDAO’s core concepts and how its groundbreaking technology enables us to safely send information into the future, visit the TimeDAO website to discover the TimeApps!
