⏳Hourglass Protocol

Perpetually auctioned, self-governing assets.

The Hourglass Protocol is an open-source protocol for creating digital standards in a new meta-standard. A standard that enables ephemeral ownership, perpetual auction, and fair, transparent self-governance through the Harberger Tax.

Hourglasses - as we call assets built in our standard - redefine traditionally understood ownership that we know from existing blockchain-based digital assets. We want ownership in our protocol to be defined by the desire and scarcity of a given resource, and to be determined by the market, through the implementation of the Harberger Tax.

Hourglasses do not have one, final owner - they are always a property of their creators. The creator, by issuing a new asset, automatically places it on a perpetual auction, in essence granting a periodic right of ownership to the winner of this auction.

However, the winner of the auction also has the obligation to declare the price at which they are willing to relinquish ownership rights to the newly purchased (rented) asset. The declared value is publicly known, and anyone who can and wants to pay it, can force a sale and become the new owner of the Hourglass.

As mentioned earlier, Hourglasses do not have a final owner, and in the hands of a given individual, they are temporary, only for the time previously determined by the creator of the Hourglass. The current owner has the opportunity to extend their ownership indefinitely. The extension of the ownership period occurs through the payment of the Harberger Tax, the rate of which is determined by the asset's creator, and the nominal value of which is calculated based on the price declared by the current owner for relinquishing ownership rights.

This way, we obtain a completely new standard for digital assets on Solana. Assets, whose purpose is not speculation, but their effective, rational, and productive use. The perpetual auction ensures that the asset will always be in the hands of the individual who values it the most.

Because the assets are always up for sale, they can quickly move to an owner who values them higher or will be able to use them more profitably. The Harberger Tax forces the asset to always be used productively, otherwise exposing the owner to losses. It also limits speculation and ensures that the asset is always as close as possible to its real, fair market value.