Recognise the contribution already happening.
Care, practical help, teaching and community work sustain daily life. C-Hour proposes a way to recognise voluntary human time, while Mutual Futures develops the income, services and time that let people choose how to contribute.
One verified voluntary hour is one C-Hour
The record concerns time freely contributed. It can include help within households, neighbourhoods and wider communities, including remote contributions. Participants would help decide how contribution is described and confirmed. Overlapping activities do not multiply the same hour.
C-Hours have no fixed dollar value, cash-out promise or tradeable balance. Communities may choose ways to thank or reciprocate contributions. Paid work remains paid, and access to essential services must not depend on a contribution score.
Sources for this section
Make participation easier
The current plan favours a conversation with a personal intelligent agent over repeated forms and timesheets. Someone could describe the help they gave, check the proposed record and decide what to keep or share. Phones are one possible interface; wearable and local computing options remain development ideas.
A useful prototype must save effort for participants and carers. Being present, owning a device or producing more AI output does not establish hours of human contribution.
Keep three records distinct
Money records show actual funding, costs and payments. Contribution records show verified voluntary time. Outcome records show what changed, such as a repaired item, a skill learned or a person receiving support.
A single activity can inform all three, but one record does not convert into another. An hour of help is not proof of a health outcome or a financial claim.
| Record | Illustrative repair session |
|---|---|
| Money | The group records its actual expenditure on parts. |
| Contribution | A participant chooses to record the voluntary time they spent helping. |
| Outcome | The group records whether the item worked afterwards and what was learned. |
Sources for this section
Fit contribution around a whole life
The source describes a Braided Economy: paid work, learning, voluntary care, creativity and rest woven through a life. C-Hour recognises one strand. It does not finance the entire braid.
Mutual Futures connects this with shared ownership, adequate income and Intermittent Retirement, meaning funded periods away from paid work throughout life. Queens connects people and enterprise leadership with resources to act.
Help shape a small first trial
Start with an activity that people already value. Ask whether recognition would help, what evidence feels proportionate and what should remain private. Test whether the record saves effort, then decide together what to change.
The plan is provisional. No functioning C-Hour account or verification service is offered by this website.
Read the C-Hour plan and proposed pilot
Follow the dedicated introduction, participant journey and source library.
Offer an activity or participant perspective
Describe the help already happening and what would make a trial worthwhile.