Hub Culture is an invitation-led

social network service A social networking service or SNS (sometimes called a social networking site) is an online platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interests, act ...

that operates its own digital currency

Ven Ven may refer to: Places * Ven, Heeze-Leende, a hamlet in the Netherlands * Ven (Sweden), an island * Ven, Tajikistan, a town * VEN or Venezuela Other uses * von Economo neurons, also called ''spindle neurons'' * '' Vên'', an EP by Eluveiti ...

. Hub Culture is located in

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,. Founded in 2002, it claims it had 32,000 members by 2021 - based on registered accounts.

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 claimed to have 25,000 members, although this is impossible to verify. In 2020 Hub Culture launched AQUA, the Active Quarantine User Ally, a HubID based health and travel service created during the COVID-19 pandemic. By 2021, the network claimed it had 32,000 accounts.

Organisation

The Hub Culture group of companies is privately held with offices in Bermuda, Hong Kong, United Kingdom and the United States.

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 A micropayment is a financial transaction involving a very small sum of money and usually one that occurs online. A number of micropayment systems were proposed and developed in the mid-to-late 1990s, all of which were ultimately unsuccessful. A s ...

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 Thomson Reuters Corporation ( ) is a Canadian multinational media conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where it is headquartered at the Bay Adelaide Centre. Thomson Reuters was created by the Thomson Corpora ...

Pavilions

In 2008, Hub Culture established its first 'Pavilions',

coworking Coworking is an arrangement in which workers for different companies share an office space. It allows cost savings and convenience through the use of common infrastructures, such as equipment, utilities and receptionist and custodial services, a ...

project 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, Glasgow, Ho Chi Minh City, Ibiza, London, Los Angeles, New York City, Marrakech, Miami, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Sacramento, Southampton, St. Moritz and Venice. Among these locations, in December 2009 was a Pavilion in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

to coincide with

COP15 The 2022 United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was planned to be held in April 2022 in Kunming, China, but was postponed, for a fourth time, to the third quarter of 2022 a ...

, a beachfront location in

Cancún Cancún ( ), often Cancun in English (without the accent; or ) is a city in southeast Mexico on the northeast coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. It is a significant tourist destination in Mexico and the seat ...

to coincide with

COP16 The 2024 United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP16) of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), known informally as the Biodiversity Convention, is a multilateral treaty. The ...

, and a guest house location in

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

for

COP17 The 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP17) was held in Durban, South Africa, from 28 November to 11 December 2011 to establish a new treaty to limit carbon emissions. A treaty was not established, but the conference agreed to est ...

. Between 2009 and 2020 temporary Pavilions opened in Davos, Switzerland during the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

Annual Meeting. "Hub Maison" arrived in New York City for

New York Fashion Week New York Fashion Week (NYFW), held in February and September of each year, is a semi-annual series of events in Manhattan typically spanning 7–9 days when international fashion collections are shown to buyers, the press, and the general publ ...

in its first fashion oriented collaboration with

Sportmax Max Mara (Italian aks 'ma:ra is an Italian fashion business. It markets up-market ready-to-wear clothing. It was established in 1951 in Reggio Emilia by Achille Maramotti (7 January 1927 – 12 January 2005). In March 2008, the company had 2,2 ...

. 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 The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

in collaboration with

Grey Goose The waterfowl genus ''Anser'' includes the grey geese and the white geese. It belongs to the true geese and swan subfamily (Anserinae). The genus has a Holarctic distribution, with at least one species breeding in any open, wet habitats in th ...

. 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 The , stylized as LEAF, is a compact five-door hatchback battery electric vehicle (BEV) manufactured by Nissan. It was introduced in Japan and the United States in December 2010, and its second generation was introduced in October 2017. The Lea ...

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 The , stylized as LEAF, is a compact five-door hatchback battery electric vehicle (BEV) manufactured by Nissan. It was introduced in Japan and the United States in December 2010, and its second generation was introduced in October 2017. The Lea ...

using the Leaf-to-Home energy system. In 2017, The Hub Culture Innovation Campus and Beach Club in Bermuda featured expanded HubID. The digitial id system included objects and entities, allowing members to store

Ven (currency) Ven (sign: VEN) is a representative digital currency. Its origin was as a community currency created by the Hub Culture social network. It claims the value of Ven is determined by backing currencies, commodities and assets. Because the currency ...

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 several shipping containers that were serving drinks at Ariel Sands in

. The company claimed the popup bar featured 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 2019 it appeared in Capri, Italy over two 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.

HubID

In January 2014, Hub Culture announced HubID an open source digital identity system based on

MIT Media Lab The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fixed academic disciplines, but draws from ...

open source technology that extends data ownership around identity to the individual user.

Ultra

Launched in 2018, Ultra is a private client

Cryptocurrency Exchange A cryptocurrency exchange, or a digital currency exchange (DCE), is a business that allows customers to trade cryptocurrencies or digital currencies for other assets, such as conventional fiat money or other digital currencies. Exchanges may acc ...

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 tokenized assets, Ultra Carbon, a digital carbon token, was the first asset to be presented on the exchange.

AQUA

Launched in 2020, AQUA, (Active Quarantine User Ally) is

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

service attempting to help travellers manage international health quarantines.

References

External links

* {{Social networking Bermudian social networking websites Digital currencies