On 4 July 2007, Hub Culture made the first transactions in Ven via a new application on Facebook, the first step on a ten year journey to July 2017. In that period the currency has evolved and grown far beyond its initial scope, but never beyond its ambition – to become an easy and convenient way for people everywhere to exchange value.

Over time those ambitions have evolved to include becoming a reserve currency backed by assets including carbon, making Ven a green currency. Today Ven is used across the world of Hub Culture and has traded over 500 million units, and new APIs are extending the reach of the digital asset throughout the finance world.

Happy 10th Birthday Ven!

(Marrakech, November 14, 2016) Hub Culture, the global collaboration platform operating the Ven digital currency, HubID digital identity system and OAI Open Audit Initiative, in collaboration with COP22, has announced the availability of a set of new, open Ven APIs (application protocol interfaces) designed to bring carbon linked digital currency to wider audiences and the global poor, in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Hub Culture is an online collaboration network managing a set of digital tools to enable human progress. It launched the Ven digital currency in 2007 as an asset backed closed loop network currency, and in 2009 diversified the underlying to include carbon, making it the world’s most stable currency and the only currency partially backed by carbon. Learn more about Ven.

The APIs are part of a technical development initiative enabled by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Global Grand Challenges programme to enable digital currency systems for merchants and the global poor. The new technologies include pricing, transfer, identity and history mechanisms to allow 3rd parties to develop transfer capabilities using the Ven Vast Closed Loop – a parallel payment mechanism designed to enable node-to-node payments across the Internet. Once integrated, a user or set of users can access the Ven payment network to execute a digital currency payment to any mobile phone number, email address, or HubID digital identity, which includes personal, entity and machine account types without a transaction cost and with almost instant clearance and settlement.

The APIs fragment this process to allow developers, banks and other financial institutions the ability to process Ven network payments inside their own ecosystem, with the core transaction still taking place in the Ven Loop.

Access to the APIs is available to anyone via https://api.hubculture.com with additional information at the Hub Culture developer portal: https://developers.hubculture.com. Developers must access a set of private and public keys to access the core APIs, which can be generated by upgrading a HubCulture.com membership to a new Developer level inside the social network platform: https://hubculture.com/store/online/view/993

The APIs also form the technical core of a Hub Culture proposal initiative for the Federal Reserve Faster Payments Taskforce, an on-going committee review of real-time payment solutions in development for the US market.

Hub Culture (https://hubculture.com) is a global collaboration platform with open technologies that can be adapted to deliver parallel payments. In addition to open social formats for the Web and SMS around value transactions and profile identity, Hub Culture operates Ven, a global asset backed digital currency that can serve as a template for networked payments via Ven Loop, a currently in development exchange network for institutional network participants. Ven is a good candidate for machine-to-machine (bot) trading, where globalization and nano-payments argue for non-fiat value markers.

HubID, a scalable digital identity system that together with Dun & Bradstreet is set to offer 250 Million + profiles for AML/KYC basis, and capabilities for identity networks across persons, entities and the bots (IoT). HubID can be a contributor to the USI system outlined in the proposal.

The OAI, Open Audit Initiative, is an early stage Ethereum blockchain platform technology for distributed, cryptographic secure, immutable and verifiable receipts and ledgers. It is designed to verify Ven transactions and HubID.

Get Global is the premier conference designed to help high growth companies succeed in foreign markets.

The Hub Culture VEN Ticket Pass includes full access for GetGlobal 2016 with a member discount of over 70% when purchasing with Ven.

Featuring:

Over 100+ speakers across major industries, including Aerospace & Defense, Consumer Tech, Web and Mobile, Food & Beverage, Health, Renewables, Sustainability, and Green Tech, Retail & E-Commerce: Taking Your Products Global, Travel, Tourism, Hospitality

3rd installation of the Hub Culture Los Angeles Pavilion for power networking and collaboration.

International Business Development & Marketing

Whether you need to sell to consumers, businesses, or governments, we’ve got you covered.

International Strategy & Risk

You want sustainable growth through your market expansion, but it doesn’t come without risks. Join the conversation to avoid mistakes and setbacks which are all too common (but shouldn’t be).

High Performance Operations

Roll up your sleeves and get down into the working level aspects of some of the most critical make-or-break issues for your company’s efforts to expand internationally.

Mastering the Global Trading System

Experts will exchange notes from the best cost-saving techniques to profit-boosting opportunities. You belong in the mix.

Hub Culture is hosting a hackathon in New York tied to Climate Week NYC and benefiting work on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The hack focuses on three tracks: climate, finance and identity, and seeks to develop solutions using open APIs from MIT Connection Science, Ven, and other public blockchain resources.

Hosted at Rise, the Barclay’s accelerator in New York, the programme features a series of brief overviews on Ven, Ethereum, Enigma and Bitcoin related infrastructure, then convenes a set of tasks open to prizes, including awards from the American Carbon Registry, Ven, and MIT.

To register, visit the Hackathon signup page on Eventbrite.

Hub Culture has been working on a new mobile app for Android and IOS to enable Ven to operate as a unique system outside of the main social network. The app enables global transaction capability for Ven and will help to simplify the transaction experience for our members.

Testing is now underway, with new capabilities to Request Ven from another user and to more easily link your contacts to a transaction.  Following approvals, the new app should be available in the app stores by the end of the summer.

Ven is issued through the Hub Culture network and is controlled by a set of algorithms that release the currency into the market under a set of fixed protocols. These protocols are determined by the Ven Central Reserve Board, a group of advisors tasked with managing the network, but the actual protocols are not widely published.

The main protocols for issuance involve the fundamentals that determine Ven value – namely asset backing and diversification. Ven pricing is determined by a formula of underlying assets presented in a fixed ratio that when added together equal ‘100%’ of the asset allocation for Ven. This includes weighted percentages for fiat currencies, like the US dollar, Euro, Yuan, Yen, and other currencies, along with commodities like gold, silver, steel, carbon and others.  The proprietary formulation is not public, but the weightings are fixed and deliver a real-time price value for Ven delivered directly from the financial markets.

Hub Culture uses this price value to publish the bid/ask price for Ven on the HubCulture.com network, and sells Ven at rates determined by the price feed. Since the underlying components are fixed but their individual pricing rates are not, individual components tend to even out pricing fluctuations.

The second aspect to the issuance protocol is the holdings and asset backing: for Ven to be issued, a corresponding purchase must be made, and the value of the purchase is recorded by the Ven ledger. The underlying funds from a purchase are then allocated into a mix of assets that reflect the underlying components. Of course, its not possible to allocate .020 from a small Ven purchase into a single asset like gold, so this is done on aggregated terms, and in the markets where Ven trades, often in real time above certain thresholds.

The liquidity of these underlying assets also allows Hub Culture to match pricing and market-making, helping to keep secondary pricing for Ven within a close range of the algorithmic value. Together, these protocols help make Ven the world’s most stable digital asset, and a reliable source of value for asset holders.

Hub Culture and Ven are part of the 300 person strong Faster Payments Task Force, a landmark initiative by the Federal Reserve to build consensus around payments innovation in the United States.  The task force includes leaders from across the world of payments, including banks large and small, service providers, stakeholders, regulators and academics from the United States.

Through a series of calls, webinars and in person meetings, the task force seeks to understand and develop end-to-end solutions for ubiquitous, secure payment infrastructure in the financial services industry. The effort is particularly centered around the Federal Reserve’s payment services.

This week the group is meeting in Chicago to continue refining criterion for approaches to faster payment systems in the US, and to develop the conversation on a wide range of issues concerning other aspects that emerge from the work. Over 4,000 have signed up to monitor the progress via online tools.

Digital assets like Ven and identity/compliance systems like HubID are part of the conversation with other approaches and services as part of the ‘non-bank providers’ working segment.

Together, the blueprints for faster payments in the US and beyond are emerging, but a final solution is not expected soon. Working groups and segments are are set to continue development through 2016 as part of the existing remit of the task force, with an ongoing series of meetings and other activities.

Last week, Hub Culture joined McDonough Innovation and 40+ thought leaders for a week long Innovation for the Circular Economy Conference, held at a remote lodge in northern Iceland.  The days consisted of intense discussions with participants on aspects of the circular economy – a concept pioneered by William McDonough in his 2002 book, Cradle to Cradle, which looked at how to build complete life cycle thinking into everything we do and build.

The trip was a testament to the modern.  We made the trip door to door from London to Reykjavik and back without accessing a single bank note over 7 days – relying entirely on a mix of Uber, debit card and Ven.  While many aspects of the week were pre-booked, the idea that a person can leave the house with a smart phone and a debit card, travel to another country for a week, and return back without ever touching cash, as if it were normal, underscores the tremendous changes happening in the way we all use finance.

It turns out even in the north of Iceland, the salmon guides and other workers have heard of digital currency, and seem just as willing to use and accept it for tips and other gratuities – Hub Culture’s team used Ven for tips and treats the entire week, instead of Kroner.

Meanwhile, among many conversations the group worked on Moonshots – with crade to cradle infrastructure ideas taking centre stage, and an intimate look at some companies and innovators working to bring these concepts to life.

In July, Hub Culture and Albright Stonebridge Group teamed up to host a luncheon briefing in Washington, D.C. focused on digital currencies and their impact on spheres of finance, technology and politics.  As digital assets like Ven gather momentum, they offer new capabilities for these sectors in particular.

The briefing pulled together participants from American Express, the Association of Finance Professionals, Bloomberg, Coin Center, the Digital Asset Transfer Authority, legal experts from Goodwin Procter, the U.S. State Department, and others with Ven to discuss implications of digital currency.

In the wake of the OPM hacking scandal, the potential of block chain technologies to offer added security in terms of financial transactions and secure information storage were at the forefront of the conversation, along with the looming arrival of New York Department of Financial Services rules on digital currencies, known popularly as the BitLicense.

For Ven in particular, the discussion focused on the growth of Ven Authorities, which have facilitated larger transaction volumes over the past 18 months through the creation of new services and digital asset services. Ven is now the world’s largest asset-backed digital currency and the world’s 3rd largest digital asset after Bitcoin and Ripple.

An open letter to our friends in Greece:

Today’s news about capital controls and ATM closures in Greece present a frustrating and uncertain moment that reminds us of volatile situations in Argentina, Venezuela, Russia and Cyprus. In all these places, citizens watched as forces beyond their control eroded their real wealth and economic freedom right in front of their eyes.

Since 2002, Hub Culture members worldwide have enjoyed great moments and memories on your islands and in your cities. We know the ongoing issues are not reflective of the Greek people, but a banking and political system grappling with broad and dynamic forces.

We also know there’s no way you can operate a business or social life on €60 a day in ATM withdrawals!

To this, we offer you access to Ven, the world’s only asset-backed digital currency and a truly stable, easily transferable digital asset. Fully backed by a mix of currencies and commodities, Ven has traded within 5% range against the Euro, the Dollar and other currencies since 2007, and we saw over half a billion units traded last year in European financial markets. Defined by the IRS as a digital asset, it is not currently subject to capital controls, and is exchangeable globally at zero transaction cost via HubCulture.com.

Might now be a great time to give Ven a try as a way to maintain liquidity and hold a stable store of value?

To learn more about how Ven can help you protect your wealth, your assets, and perhaps your sanity, we invite you to try using Ven.

We are also at this time announcing a v100,000 Ven liquidity pool available to qualified HubCulture.com members upon detailed application review. If we can be of assistance, get in touch for more information – VenForGreeks@HubCulture.com.

Pass it on. Alternatives exist.