Everybody knows Bitcoin nowadays. But the cryptocurrency world is far and wide. It is rapidly changing more and more industries. And Cannabis has its place in the crypto universe as well!
In an ever more complicated haze of new projects and buzzing ideas, you need proper guidance and information. So, we’ve done the homework and present you this useful guide.
Here you will get an overview of the cannabis industry and tokens. Last year cannabis tokens came out big and according to many analyses, they will perform even better in 2018.
Cannabis Industry
Cannabis has always had a market in North America. An illegal one, though.
Recently, the history notwithstanding, this has changed. Since 2014, almost a dozen states from the US now allow for the legal production and use of recreational cannabis and even more so have made room for its medicinal consumption. In Canada, more than 60% of its population has used the plant.
It is estimated that the cannabis industry will increase in value by 16% each year until 2025. In total, the market cap is predicted to reach an outstanding $24 billion.
For the period 2014 to 2016 monthly average revenue of dispensaries skyrocketed from $10 million to above $70 million.
During the same period, the price per gram took a dive from $45 to $12.77 in Washington for example (1).
From an economic standpoint, falling prices and increasing revenues suggest one thing for sure– growing demand.
Tokens: Overview
The projects can be classified into three groups.
- Production
- Infrastructure
- Payment Solutions
Production
AgroTechFarm
The company’s product is an aeroponic smart appliance. It lets people grow their own organic cannabis, tomatoes, peppers and other crops at home.
The appliance allows people to become self-sufficient and get even more yield than from an outdoor garden. All processes are automated, so there is little user involvement.
Since users will grow in their kitchens there will be no need for transportation or for farming land which are among the biggest contributors to global warming.
The fact that you can grow other crops than Cannabis means their product will be useful even if you decide not to grow Cannabis.
They are currently doing an ICO to introduce the Agro Tech Farm Token (ATF) and it will be interesting to see how this develops.
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is the backbone of all industries. A market’s growth potential is worthless without proper infrastructure. Think about it this way: the fastest car in the world is good for nothing without roads.
Budbo
Budbo’s platform is a global cannabis blockchain that allows any ancillary service or cannabis related business to integrate into and harness the power of its immutable ledger.
Founded in 2015, they already have a working mobile application, dispensary analytics dashboard, and an enterprise suite of products. Their mobile application has 75,000 active users and an interface similar to “Tinder” in that it allows users to quickly swipe through 1000s of locally available strains and products. There are over 2,000 dispensaries on the mobile application.
With their token sale, they aim to tokenize their blockchain and become the single point data aggregate for the cannabis industry. Utilizing the tokens as the API keys to access the ledger.
Paragon
Paragon successfully launched its initial platform and functionality in late 2017 and is now progressing towards a fully-fledged release in mid-2018.
Importantly, Paragon aims to do a lot more than just solve part of the cash problem that the cannabis industry currently faces. Paragon is developing a seed-to-sale tracking solution for cannabis products. All users and governments will be able to verify the entire life cycle of a product for free and be certain that no data was manipulated or deleted. These solutions are all made possible by smart-contracts and fueled by PRG to incorporate all elements of the supply chain.
On top of the extensive blockchain-based solutions that Paragon is creating, the company is also launching Paragon Spaces – these are co-working spaces that serve the cannabis industry with flex desks and office space – all paid for in PRG.
HempCoin
This project, like Dope Coin, is a bit of a hybrid. It combines a payment platform with a mission to rebrand the industry.
Their eight-page whitepaper does shed little light on what exactly they mean by this term.
To the best of our knowledge, they want to develop a community that will actively push pro-cannabis materials like artwork, blog posts, articles and others to improve the image of the industry.
Payments Solutions
These token bitcoin for cannabis. The -coin in their names says it all.
These projects aim to facilitate payments to cannabis businesses in a secure way. Yet, their websites do not offer enough information.
Together with that could not find a dedicated whitepaper for either of them. Whitepapers are professional tools that explain all aspects of any token-venture, so missing one is not a good thing.
Both projects have Github, so if you are into coding make sure to check them out.
Pot Coin
PotCoin tokenizes seeds and strains through a reward program. People have the option to convert PotCoins into real cannabis seeds.
Together with that, growers who develop a new strain will have the opportunity to sell it on their platform and earn tokens.
Dope Coin/ Smoke Exchange
Dope Coin’s mission is to provide a payment solution for both the legal cannabis market and the illicit one like the darknet silk road.
Just recently, the team started a new project called Smoke Exchange that aims to be a marketing and advertising platform specifically for cannabis businesses. They will integrate dope coin and bitcoin as payments on this platform.
Smoke Exchange says they will release a working demo in Q1/2018.
Wrapping it all up…
Cannabis tokens are will most likely be a good buy in 2018. Yet, be cautious when it comes to projects without a working product or that have too much hype around them.
Together with that bear in mind the basic rules of investing.
- Never put it all in one coin
- Invest only as much as can afford to lose
- A working product is better to no product
- Look at the market cap (price times number of tokens), not only price
Disclaimer: This article has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for investment advice.
Images courtesy of Cointed
The Rundown
