Hub Culture

Hub Culture Ltd.
Type of business Private
Type of site
 Social network service
Available in English (UK), English (US)
Founded Hong Kong, China
(November, 2002)
Headquarters Hamilton, Bermuda
Key people Stan Stalnaker, Founder and Creative Director
Tina Frank, Chairman, Board of Directors
Meg Thomson, Executive Producer
Edie Lush Executive Editor
Jeffery Leung Commodities Director
Mark Hamilton, Development Director
Website www.hubculture.com
Alexa rank Negative increase 311,788 (April 2014)[1]
Registration Required
Launched November 2002

Hub Culture is an invitation-led social network service that operates the global digital currency Ven, and is "the first to merge online and physical world environments."[2] It was founded in November 2002. The Hub Culture group of companies is privately held with offices in Bermuda, Hong Kong, London and New York, with a network of 40 knowledge brokers in over 25 locations worldwide. It includes an ecosystem of websites and application technologies based on Hub Culture, HubID and Ven.

As of March 2017, Hub Culture lists over 25,000 members and has exchanged over 500 million units of its virtual currency, Ven.[3][4][5] Members create profiles with tags tied to areas of expertise and knowledge, sharing information to help others in the network with business related activities. Members may build working groups to manage collaborative projects with wikis, file sharing, discussions and event planning, or exchange the virtual currency to acknowledge favors and benefits that come from the sharing of information.

Currency

Ven is a global virtual currency used by members of Hub Culture to buy, share and trade knowledge, goods and services globally with anyone in the network and can be spent at any Hub Culture Pavilion or used for micropayments on the Internet at large.[6] 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.[7] Ven first appeared as an application in Facebook on 4 July 2007. In late 2008 the currency became tradeable to anyone with an email address, making it the first global digital currency to move from an online social network into the real world.[8]

In December 2009 Hub Culture began using Ven as a micropayment system for the distribution of content produced by members in the network, allowing users to charge access to individual articles or videos posted inside the network system.

In May 2010, carbon pricing contracts were introduced to the weighted basket that determines the value of Ven. The introduction of carbon to the calculation price of the currency made Ven the first digital Emissions Reduction Currency System.[9]

In April 2011, the company announced the first commodity trade priced in Ven for gold contracts between Europe and South America.[10] On Earth Day 2011, the first carbon credit trade priced in Ven was exchanged between Nike and Winrock with the London Carbon Market for Brazilian aforestation.[11]

In September 2011, Thomson Reuters became the independent calculating agent for Ven, making it the first digital currency to be tracked by the global financial markets, with live market pricing appearing on over 500,000 financial data terminals worldwide.[12] In November 2011, Hub Culture announced the availability of diamonds, investment grade wines and Ven Gold, a retail gold product sold in individual 1 oz. 22 karat units.[13]

Pavilions

In 2008, Hub Culture began rolling out Pavilions, member based workspaces in key cities that offer concierge and consulting services, meeting space, on an internet enabled technology platform. Hub Culture Pavilions, both temporary and permanent, have appeared 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. Notable among these locations, in December 2009 Hub Culture opened a Pavilion in the heart of Copenhagen to coincide with COP15, a beachfront location in Cancún to coincide with COP16,[2][4][14] 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.[15] 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.[16]

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 as a showcase for its ecosystem of technologies. It features the world's first beach club to operate with Ven (currency) and includes Zeke, the company's artificial intelligence project. The Campus featured the first integration of artificial intelligence, digital currency, digital identity and blockchain auditing in a retail environment, tied together with 2048 - a new convenience retail brand in development by the company. [17]

HubID

In January 2014 Hub Culture announced HubID, new, open-source digital identity system based on MIT Media Lab open source technology that extends data ownership around identity to the individual user.[18] As part of the Hub Culture Innovation Campus and Beach Club in Bermuda, HubID was expanded to include objects and entities, allowing members to store Ven (currency) in company and object accounts representing digital personas, vehicles, surfboards, bicycles and other inanimate objects.

Zeke

Zeke is an artificial intelligence project led by Hub Culture. It uses an Ethereum blockchain to store and reference unstructured data and is being used to execute tasks for members. In January 2017, Hub Culture announced the first tasks to be completed by Zeke, including the world's first AI to AI focused event, at the Hub Culture Innovation Campus in Bermuda.[19]

References

  1. ↑ "Hubculture.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-04-01.
  2. 1 2 Dryza, Kristina. (2009-06-03). "Hub Culture: For those who see the world on a global basis". DavidReport. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
  3. ↑ "The dollar alternatives". CNN. 2010-07-21.
  4. 1 2 Oppenheim, Leonora. (2009-05-12). "Hub Culture Creates Conscious Collaboration + Innovation Factory in London". TreeHugger. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
  5. ↑ Roth, Daniel (2010-02-22). "The Future of Money: It’s Flexible, Frictionless and (Almost) Free". wired.com. Retrieved 6 March 2010.
  6. ↑ Jordan, Andy (2009-09-09). "Wall street journal blog article about Ven". Blogs.wsj.com. Retrieved 2012-02-07.
  7. ↑ "Ven digital currency to be displayed on Thomson Reuters terminal network". Finextra. Retrieved 2012-02-07.
  8. ↑ "Hub Culture: Ven is Hub Culture's cool social currency". DGC Magazine. 2009-07-14. Retrieved 2009-08-21.
  9. ↑ "Hub / Ven - Global Digital Currency / News". Hubculture.com. 2010-07-05. Retrieved 2012-02-07.
  10. ↑ "Virtual currency used for commodity trade". Finextra. Retrieved 2012-02-07.
  11. ↑ "American Carbon Registry Offsets Retired in First Ven Carbon Transaction". Blog.americancarbonregistry.org. Retrieved 2012-02-07.
  12. ↑ "Ven Digital Currency to be Displayed on Thomson Reuters Data Network". Finextra.com. Retrieved 2012-02-07.
  13. ↑ Eric Savitz (2011-11-23). "Currency: Dollars Aren't Enough; Here Comes The Ven (Video)". Forbes. Retrieved 2012-02-07.
  14. ↑ "Global Biz Network with Workspaces for Members". 2009-06-02. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
  15. ↑ "Video - Social Networking at the World Economic Forum - WSJ.com". Online.wsj.com. Retrieved 2012-02-07.
  16. ↑ "Renault-Nissan Alliance Electrifies the Alps". Wallstreet-online.de. 2012-01-19. Retrieved 2012-02-07.. The same year Hub Culture renovated a favela slum into a beach house in Leblon, Rio de Janeiro for the UN Rio+20 event, and completed temporary Pavilion projects in Ho Chi Minh City and Beijing. In 2014, the first Hub Culture Camp opened at Burning Man in Black Rock City with an educational focus on animal rights.
  17. ↑ "Hub of Global Influence - On a Beach". royalgazette.bm. 2017-06-29. Retrieved 2017-07-09.,
  18. ↑ "Explaining Hub Culture and Ven". idcubed.org. Retrieved 2014-09-04.
  19. ↑ "Zeke: The Future of AI and Ethereum". ethnews.org. Retrieved 2017-03-03.
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