Editing Time-based currency (section)

===Time credit===

The time credit is the fundamental unit of exchange in a timebank, equal to one hour of a person's labor. In traditional timebanks, one hour of one person's time is equal to one hour of another's. Time credits are earned for providing services and spent receiving services. Upon earning a time credit, a person does not need to spend it right away: they can save it indefinitely. However, since the value of a time credit is fixed at one hour, it resists [[inflation]] and does not earn [[interest]]. In these ways it is intentionally designed to differ from the traditional [[fiat currency]] used in most countries.<ref>{{harvp|Cahn|2004|pp=59–77}}</ref> Consequently, it does little good to hoard time credits and, in practice, many timebanks also encourage the donation of excess time credits to a community pool which is then spent for those in need or on community events.