Why Crypto Anyway?

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Since this post was written, Marijuana Banking has (almost) become legal.  Now we know that the need to move large amounts of cash can be managed with quietly arranged accounts in local credit unions and small banks.  It is also become clear that using cryptocurrency for individual purchases of marijuana (in states where weed is legal) is burdensome and unnecessary.  Various entities have developed ways to exchange cash for a digital account, sort of like a debit card, that can be used to buy legal marijuana.

Even as of the time this post was written (October 2019), there were several marijuana-related cryptocurrencies.  A few are still trading on various exchanges, albeit at very low prices.  You can read about them here.

At the time, we also wrote about TOKN, our proposal for a crypto token that has some relationship to marijuana.  Here is what we wrote at the time:

How about TOKN, a proposal from 420Beginner to develop a cryptocurrency to use in cannabis markets.  White paper coming soon. 

As of now, we have developed TOKN but it is NOT a currency and is NOT intended to be used for buying, selling or trading anything, including marijuana. It is just a fun and pretty crypto, kind of like the joke crypto DOGE.

You can read about TOKN here and ask to receive some for yourself.

Anyway, here is the original article:

It’s becoming increasingly obvious that the US marijuana market needs a new form of currency, and bitcoin (BTC) is here to fill the void.  BTC is not the only cryptocurrency of course.  Contrary to received wisdom, it is not even the first digital currency.  But it is the first digital currency developed on a “distributed ledger” and so far it has resisted central control by banks, bank-like entities and governments.

Moving the green

Because banks and credit card companies don’t do business with marijuana dispensaries, some of which rake in millions of dollars a month, the sort-of-legal marijuana business has been dealing in cash—wads and wads of greenbacks.

And since the largest US bill is now the Bennie (for our non-US readers: Ben Franklin is on the $100 bill), a business doing $1 million a month in sales is collecting, storing and moving a lot of paper.

Ten thousand pieces of paper.

As #trumpolini might tweet: “Disgracefull! Very ineficient” [sic].

We’ll let you make up your own joke about crypto-fascists.

Bitcoin at the dispensaries?

Now the business press is taking note of the obvious consequence: the crypto-pharmaceutical MaryJane can be purchased with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, perhaps soon to include a specifically marijuana-linked crypto—HashCash?

Is this the reason that Bitcoin recently popped a new high around $3500 (almost three times more valuable than a gold Krugerrand)? (Obviously, with BTC now trading around $6500 and having popped to $20k in late 2017, this post is a bit outdated.)

The Markets Insider blog from Business Insider reports that:

Specialized holding company SinglePoint, Inc. (OTC: SING) . . .  is developing (http://nnw.fm/2wJlF) a proprietary bitcoin exchange system aimed at solving payment processing issues in high-risk markets including the cannabis industry. This . . . will allow consumers to obtain bitcoin at any point of sale and will be available for use to any legal marijuana business in the 29 states and the District of Columbia where cannabis has been legalized.

UPDATE Nov 8, 2019–SING is now trading around a penny a share and says it is in the hemp cigarette business.  So much for penny stocks. The company is a cash burner, like Uber, Lyft, WeWork, etc (but with much smaller pyre of dollar bills.)

This all makes perfect sense—use your encrypted phone app to buy your crypto-pharmaceutical with cryptocurrency. Nobody, including the Jeff Sessions Thought Police, will know what you are doing, or what you are ingesting/smoking/vaping.

And it’s none of their business.

But here is a word of caution/prediction/warning—don’t count on the Feds leaving this lucrative source of tax revenue and point of control unregulated for long.  In fact, the IRS is demanding to know for 2019 tax returns whether you own any crypto!!!

[EDITOR’S NOTE: We hope you enjoyed this break from our regular programming. More reviews coming soon!]