diff --git a/src/util/time.h b/src/util/time.h
index 86e9525d8..2d8a22333 100644
--- a/src/util/time.h
+++ b/src/util/time.h
@@ -1,45 +1,56 @@
 // Copyright (c) 2009-2010 Satoshi Nakamoto
 // Copyright (c) 2009-2019 The Bitcoin Core developers
 // Distributed under the MIT software license, see the accompanying
 // file COPYING or http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php.
 
 #ifndef BITCOIN_UTIL_TIME_H
 #define BITCOIN_UTIL_TIME_H
 
 #include <chrono>
 #include <cstdint>
 #include <string>
 
 void UninterruptibleSleep(const std::chrono::microseconds &n);
 
+/**
+ * Helper to count the seconds of a duration.
+ *
+ * All durations should be using std::chrono and calling this should generally
+ * be avoided in code. Though, it is still preferred to an inline t.count() to
+ * protect against a reliance on the exact type of t.
+ */
+inline int64_t count_seconds(std::chrono::seconds t) {
+    return t.count();
+}
+
 /**
  * DEPRECATED
  * Use either GetSystemTimeInSeconds (not mockable) or GetTime<T> (mockable)
  */
 int64_t GetTime();
 
 /** Returns the system time (not mockable) */
 int64_t GetTimeMillis();
 /** Returns the system time (not mockable) */
 int64_t GetTimeMicros();
 /** Returns the system time (not mockable) */
 // Like GetTime(), but not mockable
 int64_t GetSystemTimeInSeconds();
 
 /** For testing. Set e.g. with the setmocktime rpc, or -mocktime argument */
 void SetMockTime(int64_t nMockTimeIn);
 /** For testing */
 int64_t GetMockTime();
 
 /** Return system time (or mocked time, if set) */
 template <typename T> T GetTime();
 
 /**
  * ISO 8601 formatting is preferred. Use the FormatISO8601{DateTime,Date}
  * helper functions if possible.
  */
 std::string FormatISO8601DateTime(int64_t nTime);
 std::string FormatISO8601Date(int64_t nTime);
 int64_t ParseISO8601DateTime(const std::string &str);
 
 #endif // BITCOIN_UTIL_TIME_H