This study explores the intrinsic mechanisms and practical pathways through which the community innovation practice of “time currency” reshapes community publicness. The research finds that “time currency” is not merely a tool for time-equivalent exchange but a medium imbued with trust, reciprocity, and relational attributes. By quantifying time and facilitating service exchanges, it activates resident participation, reconstructs weak ties within the community, and fosters shared norms and a sense of community identity. The article develops an integrated analytical framework of “relationship reproduction, identity construction, and institutional empowerment” to reveal how “time currency” drives communities from an “atomized” state to “organic solidarity.” The study also finds that “time currency” subverts the value standard of a single currency and institutionalizes and visualizes reciprocal behaviors, thereby promoting non-utilitarian community interactions and cultivating a spirit of community under the dual empowerment of technology and value. Based on the broader context of community governance in China, the article proposes two localized practical pathways: “balancing technological integration with humanistic care” and “coordinating formal institutions with informal norms,” emphasizing the need to balance instrumental rationality and value rationality in the operation of time and banking to build a sustainable community publicness ecosystem, offering both theoretical references and practical guidance for innovation in community governance.