Network Time Service
Accurate and independent time sources are critical in computing at all levels.
88.io contributes to the global time infrastructure in multiple areas:
Global Time Servers
Satellite based time sources are controlled by too few parties while public time pools on the internet lacks provenance and are of widely variable qualities.
88.io has its own set of Network Time Protocol based global time sources (ntp.88.io) using traceable terrestrial atomic clocks from reliable sources worldwide.
This terrestrial Time Service makes use of our own Anycast Service for high performance and reliability.
Decimal Calendar
Internally 88.io uses an Unix Time based Decimal Calendar. Externally the standard Gregorian Calendar remains on all end user interfaces.
Using traditional UTC / GMT is verbose and confusing, especially when dealing with durations across time zones.
Unix Time is a simple number that allows everyone worldwide to communicate and calculate time without ambiguity. No more worry about daylight savings and leap years.
| Unix Time | UTC / GMT | Sydney, Australia |
|---|---|---|
| 1531418938 | 2018-07-12 18:08:58 | 2018-07-13 04:08:58 |
| 1631418938 | 2021-09-12 03:55:38 | 2021-09-12 13:55:38 |
| 1731418938 | 2024-11-12 13:42:18 | 2024-11-13 12:42:18 |
The simplicity of decimal Unix Time really shines when working with durations like half an hour, a day or a year across multiple time zones.
| Decimal Calendar | Gregorian Calendar | Fuzzy Block |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | 10 seconds | |
| 100 | 1.7 minutes | |
| 1,000 | 16.7 minutes | |
| 1,800 | 0.5 hour | Local Block |
| 3,600 | 1 hour | |
| 10,000 | 2.8 hours | |
| 86,400 | 1 day | |
| 100,000 | 1.2 days | Global Block |
| 1,000,000 | 11.6 days | |
| 10,000,000 | 3.9 months** | |
| 31,536,000 | 365 days | |
| 100,000,000 | 3.2 years** | |
| 1,000,000,000 | 32 years** |
** using 30 days in a month
Decimal Day
A Decimal Day has 100,000 seconds which is approximately 1.2 Gregorian days.
Like Unix Time, the Decimal Calendar (and thus the first Decimal Day) starts on 1 January 1970 at 00:00:00 UTC.
It is easy to spot a Decimal Day from any unix time value, the last 5 digits of the unix time are always 0 at the start of the day and always 99999 at the end of the day.
- 1631400000 - 1631499999 (the 16314 day in the Decimal Calendar)
- 1631500000 - 1631599999 (the 16315 day in the Decimal Calendar)
All sub-seconds belong to the previous second. So 1631499999.9999 is still day 16314.
A Decimal Day is used as the duration of Global Blocks in Virtual Vaccine, so events across time zones can be group together on the Fuzzy Blockchains for analysis. Everyone knows the duration covered by day 16314 no matter which time zone they are in.
Decimal Year
A Decimal Year that roughly correspond to a Gregorian year is defined as the duration between the start of the first Decimal Day in a Gregorian year to the start of the first Decimal Day of the following year.
| Decimal Year | Linux Time Duration | Begin UTC | End UTC |
|---|---|---|---|
| y21 | 1609500000-1640999999 | 2021-01-01 11:20:00 | 2022-01-01 01:19:59 |
| y22 | 1641000000-1672599999 | 2022-01-01 01:20:00 | 2023-01-01 19:06:39 |
| y23 | 1672600000-1704099999 | 2023-01-01 19:06:40 | 2024-01-01 09:06:39 |
| y24 | 1704100000-1735699999 | 2024-01-01 09:06:40 | 2025-01-01 02:53:19 |
- the "y" in front stands for year and must be included when specifying a Decimal Year.
- the number behind is the Gregorian year minus 2000, so year 2100 will be written as y100.
So decimal year y21 is from decimal day 16095 to decimal day 16409 and decimal year y22 is from decimal day 16410 to decimal day 16259 etc.
- All sub-seconds belong to the previous second. So 2022-01-01 01:19:59.9999 is still in y21.
- When confusion is possible the words "Decimal Earth Year" and prefix "ye" should be used instead of just "Decimal Year" and "y".
Using Decimal Year is a great convenience but specifying the full duration is also supported e.g. 1609500000-1640999999 instead of y21.
Half Hour
It is easy to spot half hour intervals by looking at the last 3 digits of the unix time.
30 minute blocks (1800 seconds) will alway have the last 3 digits end in sequences of 800, 600,400, 200, 000 e.g. you can tell the unix timestamp 1631406800 is at the half-an-hour boundary by seeing that it has 800 at the end.