Project & Team History

This article gives a brief history of the Haven Protocol team and project, and how it evolved into what it is today.

Haven was conceived in Jan 2018 by two anonymous developers, attempting something considered by many as impossible. A decentralised algorithmic stable coin based on Monero.

The idea was for a private coin that anyone could use anywhere with no 3rd parties, with the ability to convert between currencies in your own digital vault. Many described it as the ultimate expression of what a cryptocurrency should be. Critics thought this to be impossible due to the complex cryptography and mathematics involved and the codebase’s default privacy.

You can read more details on how Haven works in the Whitepaper https://havenprotocol.org/whitepaper/

For the next few months, several attempts were made, and technical challenges overcome. The first iteration made it to the testnet stage before technical challenges overcame the developers. The price of XHV increased dramatically before the testnet launch, and then crashed when the project came to a standstill. It appeared that the original developers sold large amounts of XHV through various channels before giving up.

Before the developers disappeared, the community’s calls for transparency on the situation went unanswered, and the project appeared abandoned. Some thought it was a scam, but the current team disagree. It’s possible to see in the original code genuine attempts to make it work. But the original developers didn’t have the skillset required to finish the project and deliver the product. 

This situation prompted a small group of community members to take over the project’s management and development. They felt that the idea was just too important to be left unfinished.

This new team was built on the shared belief that everyone should have the right to financial privacy. Success required a wide range of skills and experience. Fortunately, the community included experts in; cryptography, maths, system architecture, development, community management, entrepreneurship, economics, product design and blockchain analysis and infrastructure. You can read more about the team members here: https://havenprotocol.org/knowledge/haven-team-bio/

After many weeks of discussion and debate Haven 2.0 was born and the task of moving all the comms channels and existing code began. 

The new team are committed and community-led, focusing on collaboration, transparency and honesty, which is why the project is now open source.

Given the project’s rocky start, the new team considered a rebrand, to give Haven a new lease of life. We decided to keep Haven as it is, building on the legacy, community and original brilliant idea.
Many months of coding, social networking, wallet and website development followed before xUSD went live in July 2020. We are proud to have launched the world’s first Private Stablecoin.

xUSD was the first significant step in an ambitious plan to help Haven meet its full potential and it’s true to say that the team and community have never been so confident that we will get there.
The team would like to take this opportunity to thank the community, contributors and supporters who have joined us on this journey.

You can read the project timeline since then here https://havenprotocol.org/knowledge/project-timeline/