About

Haven aims to be an open, private, and decentralized "offshore bank." It features a mint-and-burn mechanism that allows users to convert between the network's native token, XHV, and its ecosystem of synthetic assets and algorithmic stablecoins. The first Haven-based stablecoin is the UDS-pegged xUSD. Haven is built on top of Monero, a network that facilitates private transactions of XMR. Haven uses Monero's privacy technology to ensure the conversion of XVH into xUSD (or other synthetic assets) remains private.

History

Current stablecoins fall into one of two categories: reserved-backed centralized stablecoins or algorithmic stablecoins. Both models have some drawbacks. Reserved-backed stablecoins often rely on a traditional, centralized entity to facilitate the issuance of new assets. These entities are subject to regulatory forces and often operate in obscurity (users can never be 100% their stablecoins are fully-backed). The vast majority of attempts at making an algorithmic stablecoin have had trouble minimizing friction points for users, generating enough liquidity, and remaining stable (especially in periods of high market volatility). The goal of Haven is to create an ecosystem of stable algorithmic stablecoins and other synthetic assets that assume the privacy guarantees of the Monero blockchain.

The project had a rocky start to its existence. Shortly after its genesis, it received criticism after some big crypto personalities presumably helped XHV price balloon over 1,000% before it fell back to its original price. The ringleader of this so-called "pump-and-dump" scheme, Coinsignals, was later arrested on $5 million worth of unrelated fraud charges. The original developers also left the project within its first year after they didn't deliver on their original promise and vision.

In January 2019, a small group of developers took over the project and began turning Haven into the private algorithmic stablecoin protocol it is today. Haven launched the first synthetic asset within its ecosystem (xUSD) in July 2020.