What is tokenization of time?
Professional hours issued as tokens: what a time-backed token is, how it is redeemed, and how tokens pooled together become a security.
By Gene Deyev, Founder and CEO of Stobox · Last updated 12 September 2026
Tokenization of time is a model in which a professional issues tokens that each represent a set amount of their future working time, such as one hour of consultation, which can be held, traded or redeemed for that service. The term and the framework come from Gene Deyev’s essay Tokenization of Time.
Professional services are hard to sell ahead of time and hard to invest in. Tokenization of time treats an expert’s future hours as an asset: something that can be issued now, priced by a market, and redeemed later for the work itself. The arithmetic is simple: take the essay’s example of a lawyer tokenizing 100 hours at 1 hour per token – if the market prices that hour at, say, $400, the issue is a $40,000 instrument against future work, sold forward today and redeemed over the following months.
How a time-backed token works
- Issuance. The professional decides how much time to tokenize. The essay’s example is a lawyer tokenizing 100 hours of future consultation.
- Representation. Each token stands for a fixed unit of that time, for example one hour.
- Verification first. Before issuing, the professional’s identity and credentials are verified and approved, so a token is backed by someone able to deliver.
- Redemption. A holder hands the token back to the issuer, and a smart contract records the exchange for the service.
- Price. The market sets the value, based on supply, demand and how the professional’s time is expected to be valued in future.
Time-backed securities
The essay goes one step further. Time-backed tokens from many professionals, such as lawyers, consultants, doctors and educators, can be pooled and issued as a single security token. That product is a security, so it sits under securities rules, with the disclosure and investor protection that come with them – and the wrapper changes nothing about that: the SEC’s staff statement of 28 January 2026 confirmed a security’s technological format does not alter its legal character. On-chain, such a token needs transfer restrictions enforced at the token layer, the job of a securities-token standard such as ERC-7943. Structuring such an offering follows the same 8-phase sequence as any other security token, set out in the Tokenization Framework; the rules that separate a security from a utility token are compared in security token vs utility token.
Tokenization of time is a proposed model, published as an essay. This page describes the model; it does not describe a live Stobox product.
Questions this raises
Tokenization of time, answered briefly.
What is a time-backed token?
A token that represents a fixed amount of a professional’s future working time, such as one hour, redeemable with the issuer for that service.
Who created the concept of tokenization of time?
Gene Deyev, Founder and CEO of Stobox, set out the model in his essay Tokenization of Time, published on stobox.io.
Is a time-backed token a security?
It depends on the rules where it is offered. A pool of time-backed tokens issued as one investment product is a security token and falls under securities regulation.
Educational reference. ← Back to Learn
