It may seem an unusual idea to mow a stranger’s lawn, tot up their tax return or do their weekly shop without any money changing hands. After all, with the rise of services such as Amazon Mechanical Turk and TaskRabbit, which allow anyone to buy other people’s time for nominal amounts, it seems as though any service can be sold for a price. But what if you could trade the good deed you do for your neighbour for something that you need to get done? For example, by mowing a lawn you get a local electrician to come and fix your lights for free.

This is the concept of time banking, a social currency that allows people to trade their skills with each other without the need for any money to change hands. In this system, one person volunteers to work an hour for somebody else and in return they get credited with “time”, which they can “spend” on a service from another volunteer. It’s possible you’ve heard of this concept already.

The idea of exchanging time, rather than money, for labour, is said to date back to 1832. But time banking has recently made a comeback and is using digital platforms to attract members who are interested in trading skill sets and making new connections. We’re really interested in the value of time being exchanged, conversations happening between people, and friendships being fostered.