Introduction:

Timekoin is a long tested set of protocol rules and software implementation for an open encrypted electronic currency system on a public network. To date, there has been No Hack or Exploit of the Timekoin network implementation for open p2p digital currency. Timekoin is not a clone of other existing digital currency systems (such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, etc). Timekoin is a very different and unique way to secure transactions and create currency. Timekoin uses customized RSA encryption and SHA-256 hashing to secure transactions. Transactions work like clockwork, being processed every 5 minutes. Transaction processing is not dependent on Currency creation and this makes it unique among all other popular digital currencies. This separation of the two systems allows each to function independently of the other. The design of Timekoin allows it to function on computer systems or devices (such as the Raspberry Pi) with minimal effort needed to maintaining security and speed.

Economy:

The Timekoin economy runs on very simple rules. These rules are enforced by all peers participating in the network.

1. No hard limit on currency creation. There is no cap of the maximum amount of currency that will ever be created.

2. All Timekoins are whole numbers. No Decimal point currency is used to avoid rounding and accuracy errors.

3. Transactions cost nothing except the CPU time it took your computer to encrypt the transaction.

4. No Double-Spending a balance for obvious reasons.

5. No Spending to yourself. Transactions such as this are ignored.

6. 100 Transaction queue limit. Each public key may only queue 100 transactions to be processed by the network for each 5 minute transaction cycle. This insures the network is not flooded with bogus transactions.

7. Currency Generation is restricted to a single IP address per public key basis to combat fake servers. Currency Generation is also capped at 100,000 generation transactions per public key. No server is immortal in Timekoin.
   

8. Any peer can generate currency, but must be elected by the network peers first. There is a network fee to request election by the other peers. The fee is the number of generating servers total; paid to each unique public key before being considered for peer election. The election process is random to give each peer an equal chance of winning.
   

9. Elected peers are allowed to create currency so long as they remain online and generate at least 1 unit of currency every 8 hours, otherwise the peer loses the elected status and must be elected again to generate currency.

10. Elections are chosen at random times in the future based on the forward movement of time and seeded by the Transaction History of the Timekoin network. Every Transaction in Timekoin changes the future.
    

11. Generating currency (for elected peers) is chosen at random times in the future based on the forward movement of time and seeded by the Transaction History of the Timekoin network. This organic randomness makes it nearly impossible to predict far into the future for any type of possible exploitation.
    

Features:

1. Open Source software, can run on any operating system that can run a Web server, PHP5 and a Database server.

2. Any modern web browser can manage the system (be it tablet, phone, or desktop PC)

3. Very low resource footprint. You can resurrect old machines and give them new life as a Timekoin server.

4. Everything is laid out for view in the program GUI. Nothing is hidden from the user, you can watch/monitor every aspect of the Timekoin network.

FAQ:

1. Q: How does Timekoin secure transactions without requiring huge amounts of processing ability among network peers like Bitcoin and clones?

   A. Timekoin does not require fast number guessing like other digital currency. Instead, it uses a combination of customized RSA encryption and SHA-256 hashing to create secure transactions. Bitcoin uses mined blocks to process transactions and create currency at the same time. Timekoin uses transaction cycle SHA hashes to secure transaction data. It does not matter which peer creates this secure hash first, so there is no need to make the peers compete. Without the need to make astronomical guesses (or blocks in Bitcoin speak), Timekoin is much faster and more efficient at transaction processing.
   
   

2. Q: What stops a botnet operator or someone with a ton of resources from exploiting the 51% weakness of Bitcoin in the Timekoin network?

   A. Timekoin works off the 100% weakness model. Meaning that to go and change past transactions requires the botnet/someone to have 100% control of the entire network of peers. This is the reason for the separation of the Transaction Processing and Currency Creation systems within Timekoin. The two work independent of each other. Currency does not need to be created for transactions to work in Timekoin. Currency creation is the reward for the servers that maintain the Timekoin network transaction history data.
   
   

3. Q: How is Currency Creation controlled vs. other online digital currencies?

   A. The concept of Timekoin is to allow everyone that is running a server to be able to create currency. The key difference is, only small amounts can be created over time and many safeguards are built-in to prevent abuse or hijacking the currency creation system. For example, limits as to how much a server can create in one day, and how many other servers can join the generation pool for currency creation, etc. Timekoin is designed to be a gradual system that regular users can participate in without the fear of some entity with large resources taking over. Other digital currencies use vast amounts of processing power to create a theoretical barrier to currency creation. This allows them to control the currency creation rates by using the limits of the network processing power. Timekoin uses the forward movement of time as the barrier to currency creation along with the Transaction History of Timekoin to seed the selection. Every transaction in Timekoin changes the future. This alone is more powerful than any artificial network processing barrier used by any other digital currency.
   
   

4. Q: What Internet Port does Timekoin use?

   A. Timekoin uses TCP on port 1528 by default for peer to peer communications between servers but is not required.
   
   

5. Q: Will Timekoin be cracked by Quantum computers?

   A. No encryption scheme is invulnerable. All encryption can be defeated with enough processing power and time. What sets Timekoin apart is that the users can upgrade encryption difficulty on the fly. This means it will always be a step ahead of Quantum computers and thus makes it future proof against such attacks. Quantum computers have to be built with more and more Qubits to quickly defeat strong levels of encryption. Timekoin can simply increase encryption and always remain one step ahead of such computers. There is no theoretical limit to what Timekoin can use and process but there is a finite limit to what size of Quantum computers can be physically built. The math available to Timekoin is infinite.
   
   

6. Q: How can this system work if it is so simple?

   A. Sometimes the best solutions are the simplest.

   "Among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected" - Occam's razor

Technical Documents:

1. Timekoin API Document, contains how to use the Timekoin API to access the abilities of the entire network for building custom clients, monitors, or anything else that the imagination can create.

   Click Here to Download API Document (PDF File - Last Updated 7/2/2021)

2. The Timekoin Technical Document contains more details about how Timekoin works today and should be an Interesting read for those that want to know more about the Encrypted Digital Currency system and how it works.

   Click Here to Download Technical Document (PDF File - Last Updated: 7/3/2021)
   

3. Early document that laid out the framework of what became today's Timekoin software. This is an out of date document, but left here for historical reference.

   Click Here to Download (PDF File - Date: 2/20/2010)

License:

Created in part from the MIT License template.

Copyright (c) 2010--2023 Timekoin

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of
this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in
the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to
use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, the Software, and to permit
persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following
conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software. Copies of the software can not
be sold to any person, entity, government, corporation, or business.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR
COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER
IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN
CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.