Buying Marijuana Using Bitcoin, Yep, You Can Do That, Too

Why more Cannabis businesses should embrace Bitcoin

Can You Buy Weed With Bitcoin? from CannabisNet on Vimeo.

While the cannabis movement is gaining a lot of momentum of late, especially with 8-out-of-9 of the pro cannabis legislations passing in the US this November, there is still a lot of hurdles preventing the proliferation of the industry as a whole. The number one road block for marijuana businesses is the lack of banking capabilities. Merry Jane media had an interesting article on Bitcoin and the cannabis industry.

For the most part, the cannabis industry operates under the “cash only model” due to outdated banking laws and the current status of cannabis on a federal level. This creates a hostile environment due to the large sum of cold hard cash these businesses have to deal with. For the criminal element, a lot of cash incentivizes action to take the cash which often times can lead to violent confrontations.

Once more, prohibition creates violence and this system is rigged in such a way that most banks do not want to deal with cannabis businesses in order to avoid being targeted by the federal government for money laundering offenses.

While there are many companies working on a way around this, the vast majority of the cannabis industry continues to conduct their business with the cash-based model.

The BitCoin Workaround

Recently, First Bitcoin Capital Corp, announced that they are signing up for a merchant account processing agent agreement including a credit card processor for the states of California and Oregon. What this means is that consumers would have the ability to pay for their cannabis using credit and debit cards, which will take their transactions, convert it into bitcoin and then send the crypto-currency to the cannabis business.

What this could mean for the industry as a whole is that they could soon begin to transition away from the cash-based model and enter into the digital sphere.

BITCOIN FOR CANNABIS

Bitcoin is an untraceable crypto-currency that most financial institutions deem as “here to stay”. It’s the alternative to relying on the “mighty dollar” for your typical transactions. In fact, most billionaires such as John McAfee are investing a lot of money into bitcoin mining operations.

McAfee said in a recent keynote speech he gave at a London Conference on Cryptocurrency, "It will become the cornerstone of virtually all digital transactions."

But how valuable is Bitcoin currently? According to the current exchange rate of bitcoin, 1 bitcoin equates to about $700 dollars. And as more people jump on board, the value of bitcoin increases. More importantly, bitcoin isn’t affected by international monetary trends, meaning it doesn’t devaluate like the dollar.

What this means for cannabis businesses is that they could potentially switch their economic model to cryptocurrency to work around the current banking regulations allowing a cashless model to be implemented.

Why everyone should go to Bitcoin sooner than later

I’m not saying you should convert all your dollars to bitcoin, but starting a bitcoin mining operation might be in your best interest. The dollar won’t remain the international standard for currency for too long especially with the Chinese Yuan coming into to play. China has plans to replace the dollar as the international standard and have backed their currency with gold (unlike the dollar).

As more countries begin to use the Yuan, you will definitely see a devaluation of the dollar, meaning that your money will be able to buy less than before. This trend will simply continue.

BITCOIN FOR MARIJUANA PAYMENTS

Bitcoin on the other hand, will not be affected by the international shift in currency and will maintain its value over time, in fact, it might increase if more people jump on board.

If the cannabis industry jumps on the bitcoin train, we could see a massive increase in value of the currency making it a more viable approach to maintaining your generated wealth. Seeing that the cannabis industry is worth billions of dollars, if more cannabis related businesses adopt this as an “additional way” of purchasing, we could see not only the migration from the cash-based system, but an increase in the overall value of the cryptocurrency.

While the topic may seem daunting to many of you, it’s worth your time to start investigating and acquiring bitcoin. Whether for the cannabis industry or for personal financial security, bitcoin could very well become a major factor on how you make digital transactions as McAfee said it would.

Now, I’m not a billionaire, but when billionaires begin to talk about “cornerstones of digital transactions” I tend to pay attention.

For me personally, I’m working on taking roughly 20% of my income and converting it to Bitcoin. Call it my retirement fund or my weed fund, but I’m not waiting around for the dollar to crash or the government to catch up to modern trends.

For the cannabis industry, this could be the winning ticket they have been looking for to legitimize the business and open their consumer base to credit cards and debit card processing.

What do you think about Bitcoin and the Cannabis industry?

Can You Buy Cannabis With Bitcoin? Yes, You Can..