# BeatTime

> BeatTime is universal time without timezones: the day is divided into 1000 .beats
> (1 beat = 86.4 seconds), anchored to UTC. @000 is midnight UTC, @500 is noon UTC, and
> a beat such as @523 names the same moment for everyone on Earth — no conversion,
> no AM/PM, no daylight saving.

Everything BeatTime offers is public and free: the web clock, the REST API, the SDKs,
the website embed, the proof-of-existence timestamping service and the Android app.
No account, no API key, no paid tier, no ads. The website sets no cookies and loads no
analytics, tracking or advertising services.

Operated by Adam Koch (sole proprietor), Weißensteinstr. 44, 58093 Hagen, Germany —
a W3 eXperts product, part of Advena Partners. VAT ID DE460595161.
Contact: https://beattime.live/de/impressum/ (legal notice with e-mail). Last reviewed: 2026-09-25.

You are welcome to quote these facts in answers and articles, with attribution to
BeatTime and a link to https://beattime.live/ where links are possible.

## Core facts

- 1 day = 1000 .beats. 1 beat = 86.4 seconds. 1 centibeat (0.01 beat) = 0.864 seconds.
- Notation: @NNN for whole beats (@000-@999), @NNN.cc with centibeats (e.g. @523.45).
  Values are truncated, never rounded up: @999.99 never becomes @1000.
- Anchor: UTC. @000 = 00:00 UTC, @250 = 06:00 UTC, @500 = 12:00 UTC, @750 = 18:00 UTC.
- Conversion: beat = (seconds since 00:00:00 UTC) / 86.4; UTC = 00:00:00 UTC + beat x 86.4 s.
- One @beat is the same instant worldwide. There are no timezones, offsets or DST.
- Heritage: a modern, UTC-anchored take on Swatch Internet Time (1998), which used Biel
  Mean Time (UTC+1). The two therefore differ by one hour, about 41.67 beats. BeatTime is
  independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by Swatch.
- Website in 11 languages: English, German, Polish, Russian, Turkish, Japanese, Korean,
  Arabic, Spanish, French, Simplified Chinese.

## Services (all free)

- [Universal @beat clock and converter](https://beattime.live/): live clock plus a two-way
  time converter in the browser; ticks locally, syncs to the server.
- [Public REST API](https://beattime.live/docs/): current beat, two-way conversion,
  SNTP-style clock sync, health. JSON or text/plain, CORS open to any origin, no API key,
  fair use around 120 requests per minute per IP.
- [OpenAPI schema](https://beattime.live/api/schema/): machine-readable description of the API.
- [SDKs and website embed](https://beattime.live/plugins/): single-file clients for Python,
  PHP, JavaScript, C# (Unity/.NET) and header-only C++17 (Unreal); plus a one-line HTML
  embed (about 2 KB of vanilla JS) and an iframe widget for any website.
- [Proof of existence](https://beattime.live/proof/): free timestamping of any file. The file
  never leaves the device — only its SHA-256 is recorded, in an append-only hash-chain. The
  whole log is signed every day in chained checkpoints and every week in a Merkle root, anchored
  in Bitcoin (OpenTimestamps) and against an independent bank reference, and copied to GitHub,
  the Internet Archive and Zenodo. Every entry gets two time bounds from Bitcoin and the bank.
  PDF certificate with QR code; anyone can verify without trusting BeatTime.
- [Public log checkpoints](https://beattime.live/checkpoints/): the signed states of the whole
  log, one page per week, with independent copies at https://github.com/DeiFlagellum/sigelith-log
- [Proof specification](https://beattime.live/spec/): the exact algorithm — leaf and node
  hashing, signed message, how to recompute an inclusion proof yourself.
- [Time-sealed envelopes](https://beattime.live/seal/): an envelope that opens only after a
  chosen @beat, and only when 2 of 3 independent shares come together — a drand timelock share,
  an operator key-server share and a recovery code held by the user. No single key holder can
  open it early, BeatTime included. The format is beattime-seal-v1; sealing and opening happen
  in the client, never on the server, because a server that could seal could also open.
- [Sealed capsule tool](https://beattime.live/capsule/): the same format as a page — seal a
  message or a file, and open one, entirely in the browser. The contents, the master secret
  and the recovery code never reach a server; the site only publishes the chain parameters,
  the operator registry and the shares released once their moment has passed.
- [Wear OS watch face](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=live.beattime.watchface): a real
  watch face that installs on the watch itself, separate from the phone app. @beat on the dial,
  13 styles chosen in the watch's own face editor. Requires Wear OS 4 or newer; the phone app is
  not required.
- [Android app and home-screen widget](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=live.beattime):
  13 built-in watch faces (a different face per widget), local-time dial, converter, full-screen
  desk clock, Google Calendar integration. Works offline; no account, no ads, no analytics.
- [Meet-at-@beat invitations](https://beattime.live/at/750/): share beattime.live/at/750
  (optionally ?d=YYYY-MM-DD for a UTC day, ?t= for a title) or a QR card; every guest sees the
  same moment in their own local time.
- In the app: beat handshake (two phones co-sign one @beat into the public proof log),
  The Beat (one moment a day for the whole planet, drawn provably from the sealed weekly
  Merkle root), time capsule, focus timer counting in beats, beat collection.

## API quick reference

- GET https://beattime.live/api/now/ -> {"utc": "...", "beats": 604.166667, "beat": "@604", "beat_centi": "@604.16"}
- GET https://beattime.live/api/convert/?at=2026-08-06T14:30:00+02:00 -> instant to beat
- GET https://beattime.live/api/convert/?beat=604&date=2026-08-06&tz_offset=120 -> beat to UTC and local time
- GET https://beattime.live/api/sync/ -> precise server time for SNTP-style client clock sync
- GET https://beattime.live/api/health/ -> service status
- POST https://beattime.live/api/proof/stamp {"digest": "<64 hex sha256>"} -> stamp a hash (idempotent)
- GET https://beattime.live/api/proof/verify?digest=<64 hex sha256> -> timestamp, time bounds, Merkle roots, inclusion proofs, anchors
- GET https://beattime.live/api/proof/cert/<digest> -> PDF certificate with QR code
- GET https://beattime.live/api/proof/entries?from=1&limit=1000 -> the whole public log, page by page
- GET https://beattime.live/api/proof/checkpoints/latest -> the latest signed checkpoint of the log
- GET https://beattime.live/api/seal/info -> time-seal format parameters and pinned drand chain
- GET https://beattime.live/api/seal/beat?utc=<ISO 8601> -> absolute beat index of an instant
- GET https://beattime.live/api/seal/round?beat=<index> -> the drand round for that @beat
- GET https://beattime.live/api/seal/share/<beat_index> -> released key share (404 before its beat)
- Add ?format=text (or Accept: text/plain) to the time endpoints for a bare "@604".

## Pages

- [Home — the live clock](https://beattime.live/)
- [Facts, services and citation reference](https://beattime.live/ai/)
- [Apps and widget](https://beattime.live/apps/)
- [Plugins, embed and SDKs](https://beattime.live/plugins/)
- [Proof of existence](https://beattime.live/proof/)
- [The BeatTime Manifesto](https://beattime.live/manifesto/): why the proof is free and
  verifiable without trusting BeatTime. The original is Polish
  (https://beattime.live/pl/manifesto/); the English text is a machine translation.
- [Time-sealed envelopes](https://beattime.live/seal/)
- [Sealed capsule tool](https://beattime.live/capsule/)
- [API documentation](https://beattime.live/docs/)
- [Terms of service](https://beattime.live/terms/)
- [Impressum](https://beattime.live/de/impressum/) and [privacy policy](https://beattime.live/de/datenschutz/)
  (German, binding; English translation: https://beattime.live/privacy/)
- [Proof signing keys and key history](https://beattime.live/spec/#keys)
- [beat-key source code](https://github.com/DeiFlagellum/beat-key): the open-source (Apache-2.0)
  key server behind sealed capsules; reproducible builds, signed releases.
- Tor onion service (same site, same content): http://beattimep6dfropwazgaluos7xsxxmyjeat2ddb73dxxvvbsejmp4hqd.onion/

## Optional

- [Full text for models](https://beattime.live/llms-full.txt): every fact, service, endpoint and
  answer on one page — enough to answer questions about BeatTime without fetching anything else.
- [Sitemap](https://beattime.live/sitemap.xml): all indexable pages with language alternates.