Hub Culture

Hub Culture is a social network service that operates the global digital currency Ven, and according to its website, is "the first to merge online and physical world environments. It was founded in November 2002. The Hub Culture group of companies is privately held with offices in Bermuda, Geneva, Hong Kong, London, San Francisco and Singapore. Dedicated representatives are in over 60 locations worldwide.

The site has been noted in the Wall Street Journal, CNNMoney.com, New York Times, Wired, PSFK, Springwise, Huffington Post, Harvard Business Review, Trendhunting, GDR, and other trend related websites.

As of April 2011, Hub Culture lists over 20,000 members and has exchanged over 4.1 million units of its virtual currency, Ven .  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.

Ven

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. 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 in partnership with GGMarkets a leading UK company that provides trading platform solutions to both financial institutions and private clients. 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.

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 and only currency that is linked to the environment. 

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 Cannes, Cancún, Copenhagen, Davos, Ibiza, London, Los Angeles, New York City, Miami, Rio de Janeiro and St. Moritz. Notable among these locations, in December 2009 Hub Culture opened a Pavilion in the heart of Copenhagen to coincide with COP15 and a beachfront location in Cancún to coincide with COP16[1][3][11]

In 2010 new temporary Pavilions opened in Davos, Switzerland during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting and 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 virtual 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 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.

Currency

Ven is a global virtual currency used by members of a social network service Hub Culture to buy, share and trade knowledge, goods and services globally. It can be spent at any Hub Culture Pavilion or used for micropayments on the Internet at large. 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 in partnership with GGMarkets a leading UK company that provides trading platform solutions to both financial institutions and private clients. 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.

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 groups, articles or videos available online. 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 and only currency that is linked to the environment. An open API for Ven arrived in January 2011, providing new forms of distribution and access to the currency for the web at large via a developer interface at VenMoney.net.

In April 2011, the company announced the first commodity trade priced in Ven for gold contracts between Europe and South America.