Hub Culture is an invitation-led social network service that operates the global digital currency Ven. Founded in 2002, it had 25,000 members by 2017.
History
In November 2002, Hub Culture was founded by Stan Stalnaker. It was named after his book Hub Culture: The Next Wave of Urban Consumers published in the same year. In 2006 and 2008, United Kingdom operations where incorporated, Hub Culture Services and Hub Culture Pavilions, respectively. As of March 2017, Hub Culture lists over 25,000 members and has exchanged over 500 million units of its virtual currency, Ven.
Hub Culture runs its main social media website and platform. It also provides websites and application technologies as HubID, Zeke, Ultra, Bermuda Standard and Ven.
Hub Culture website
Members can create profiles with tags tied to areas of expertise, access membership and concierge services, build their own digital identity, and share information to help others in the network. The focus is on business related activities. Members may build their own hubs to manage collaborative projects with wikis, file sharing, discussions and event planning. They can exchange Ven virtual currency to acknowledge benefits that come from the sharing of information, or for goods and services.
Ven Currency
Launched in 2007, Ven is a Digital currency used by members of Hub Culture to buy, share and trade knowledge, goods and services. Anyone in the network and can use Ven at any 'Pavilion' or used for micropayments online. The value of Ven is determined on the financial markets from a basket of currencies, commodities and carbon futures. It trades against other major currencies at floating exchange rates. Global pricing for Ven is provided by Thomson Reuters.
Pavilions
In 2008, Hub Culture established its first 'Pavilions', coworking spaces in cities that offer concierge and consulting services, meeting space, on an internet enabled technology platform. Pavilions may be either temporary and permanent. They have been opened in Beijing, Bermuda, Cannes, Cancún, Copenhagen, Davos, Ho Chi Minh City, Ibiza, London, Los Angeles, New York City, Marrakech, Miami, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Sacramento, St. Moritz and Venice. Among these locations, in December 2009 was a Pavilion in Copenhagen to coincide with COP15, a beachfront location in Cancún to coincide with COP16, and a guest house location in Durban for COP17. Between 2009 and 2017 temporary Pavilions opened in Davos, Switzerland during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting. "Hub Maison" arrived in New York City for New York Fashion Week in its first fashion oriented collaboration with Sportmax. The New York Pavilion became the first Pavilion to offer contemporary retail fashion selections for sale in digital currency. In May 2010, Hub Culture opened the Cannes Clubhouse, a venue tied to the 63rd Cannes Film Festival in collaboration with Grey Goose. A private island in Croatia and Bali villa project also use Ven as a means of exchange. The 2011 Davos Pavilion made history with the first vehicles available for sale in Ven, with the all-electric Nissan LEAF on offer. In 2012, portions of the Davos Pavilion became the first in Europe to be powered by zero-emission energy from the Nissan Leaf using the Leaf-to-Home energy system. In January 2014, The Hub Culture Innovation Campus and Beach Club in Bermuda featured expanded HubID. It included objects and entities, allowing members to store Ven in company and object accounts representing digital personas, vehicles, surfboards, bicycles and other inanimate objects. In the summer of 2017, during the 35th America's Cup Hub Culture opened its first Innovation Campus and Beach Club at Ariel Sands in Bermuda. The beach club is integrated with Ven currency, HubID and Zeke. The campus features integration of artificial intelligence, digital currency, digital identity and blockchain auditing in a retail environment. In 2018, the Innovation Campus appeared in Paris, Cannes and Monaco over six weeks. In Bermuda, the project was followed by the Bermuda Innovation Sprint, a two week event gathering global Fintech leaders for meetings and other activities.
Launched in 2018, Ultra is a Cryptocurrency Exchange using HubID and other Hub Culture technologies to enable the exchange of digital assets, including tokenised assets. The concept for Ultra emerged from the Bermuda Innovation Campus and Beach Club. In addition to trading cryptocurrencies, Ultra Carbon, a digital carbon token, was the first asset to be presented on the exchange.
AQUA
Launched in 2020, AQUA, is COVID-19 pandemic service to help travellers successfully manage international health quarantines.
