What started as an innovative way to exchange goods, products and services has grown into a digital currency now used around the world.
Known as Ven, this currency is somewhat like Facebook Credits, which let users on the social networking site buy virtual goods within games and apps. Ven, however, can be used to purchase physical goods, including coffee beans, as well as consulting services or micro-fund development projects such as a community garden.
Currently, there is a one-way air taxi ticket for sale between London and Ibiza for four passengers, for 124,452.73 Ven. If that is too steep, then maybe a 10-Ven mobile ringtone is more within budget.
Ven first sprouted up on Facebook five years ago then started being traded to anyone with an email address. It can be accumulated in two ways - either by buying it, or getting paid for in Ven by providing a product or service of some sort.
Unlike some virtual money, where 10 credits may be pegged to a currency such as US dollars, Ven's value rises and falls based on a basket of currencies, including the dirham, yuan, dollar, pound, euro and others.
Gold, silver, Brent Crude oil and other commodities have also been mixed in to help determine the Ven's value, as well as carbon futures.
The currency is the brainchild of Stan Stalnaker, who is the founder and strategic director of HubCulture.com, a social network where items are listed and sold using Ven.
Hub Culture creates "pop-up pavilions", which spring up during key moments such as the World Economic Forum in Davos, and where Ven fanatics can physically meet to exchange ideas and services for their beloved currency.
These pavilions have drawn more than 60,000 people during the past four years globally, Mr Stalnaker says, and the plan is to launch the first one in the Middle East during a UN climate conference in Doha this year.
Hub Culture earns membership fees for people and businesses that sign up to use the currency.
