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Confident Cannabis (YC S15) is the stock exchange of weed
- TillE 10y agoAre there any startups working on the actual breeding/growing process itself? I know in recent years it's been a little easier to work on this stuff openly with medical grows in California, but the vast majority of breeding has been done illegally and therefore at smaller scales than you'd really want. Feels like there's still plenty of room for optimization of both the genetics and the overall growing process, and both areas could benefit from some specialized software.
- melvinmt 10y agoYeah that was the first thought that popped in my mind. If a big chunk of the market is (still) growing illegally, why would they ever come out and join a marketplace?
- maxerickson 10y agoSomeone mentioned their ~breeding startup in this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11896916 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11896916
- rezistik 10y agoHey, I'm the CTO @ Flora, we're working on a cannabis breeding platform for selective breeding. There's a ton of room for optimization in the breeding process, let me know if you have any specific questions on it, I'd love to chat.
- Aelinsaar 10y agoWhat's the state of LED growing? Is it ready to take over for HID?
- rezistik 10y agoHID's are still king, but there is a lot of great things happening with LED's. One of the cool things about them is that they can be tuned into specific spectrums that are optimized for photosynthesis.
- Aelinsaar 10y agoThat sounds pretty exciting, especially if popular strains can be optimized for those wavelengths.
- bdr 10y agoWow, a startup that's actually shipping product.
- tdaltonc 10y agoI'm struggling with the "stock exchange" metaphor. Does it mean something other then "marketplace"?
- ccrush 10y agoYou have the ability to make money in the market by providing liquidity by giving your money to the farmers so they can buy and smoke their meth today by technically being the owner of the weed until such time that it dries and a stoner is willing to buy and smoke it. It is called a commodity futures contract exchange or a commodities market. I think they chose to be condescending to their readers by using the stockmarket analogy and essentially saying "these plebians have no idea what commodities are oe how they are exchanged so let us use a word they've heard on their TV." Anyway, what did you want them to call it instead of a "stock market[place]"? A "[weed] market[place]"? Or just a "marketplace" and skip the analogy altogether? Also, I wonder what happens if you get pulled over with certificates that say you own a whole bunch of weed? If that is found in plain sight, does it give probable cause to search further?
- tdaltonc 10y agoAwww ok. Ya, "a commodities market for pot" makes a lot of sense. They're vital to a functioning of any modern agricultural industry.
- MichaelBurge 10y agoI'm really surprised YC are funding an illegal drug operation. The DOJ isn't enforcing anything against this criminal behavior, but that can change if the president wakes up one day in a different mood. Steps 1 and 2 are more subject to state law, but their step 3 is literally to set up a marketplace for illegal drugs over the internet(which crosses state borders). If their marketplace is just a directory and doesn't accept payment, they can at least stay in business until they're raided. But I imagine it's going to be very difficult to find a bank that's willing to process payments for a company that handles illegal drugs, or even just to give you a checking account. They have enough problems with regulators as it is. If you stick purely to software and essentially only handle contracts, I still wonder if a contract for illegal goods can be enforced in court. If I unwisely buy 1000lb of marijuana from their marketplace and they don't deliver, what's a judge going to do - order them to commit a crime to fulfill the contract? Or void the contract entirely, which makes the whole system meaningless?
- walrus01 10y ago> Steps 1 and 2 are more subject to state law, but their step 3 Step 1: Collect underpants Step 2: ??? Step 3: Profit
- chillacy 10y agoThe risk reward ratio is pretty favorable. If there's a big crackdown, that's another startup down, no big deal, startups fail all the time. Or there's no crackdown, and instead they have fewer competitors (because the industry is perceived as dangerous and risky) and they really take off.
- jsprogrammer 10y agoYou don't appear to have considered being charged by the Feds with inter-state drug trafficking, or similar.
- chillacy 10y agoI assume YC board members have consulted with their lawyers as far as their exposure goes.
- n00b101 10y agoI think "commodity exchange" would be the correct term, as opposed to "stock exchange." Trading commodities on an exchange definitely makes sense. Indeed, all legal commodities are traded on exchanges. It also makes sense for exchanges to create standardised grades for a commodity, in order to control for variations in the product. For example, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange defines the following grades of wheat just under a single tradeable contract: "No. 2 Soft Red Winter, No. 2 Hard Red Winter, No. 2 Dark Northern Spring, No. 2 Northern Spring, No. 1 Soft Red Winter, No. 1 Hard Red Winter, No. 1 Dark Northern Spring, No. 1 Northern Spring." Commodities are generally traded on futures exchanges. You are not simply agreeing to buy a specific grade and quantity of the commodity for a certain price, you are also agreeing on exactly where and when that commodity will be delivered. This normally involves having standardised delivery facilities and handling procedures for the commodity. Since the transaction entails agreeing to purchase something at a future time, it is called a futures contract.
- outworlder 10y agoI've worked with commodity exchange software, for cocoa. It is amazing the amount of rules they have come up with. Not only you have grades, but there's a whole process to store, maintain, audit, split and combine commodities. What's more, once it is accepted at a warehouse, everything else happens electronically, until such a time the commodity actually has to be moved somewhere. In the mean time, all that gets traded is the paper. Or its electronic version, or paper. If paper is involved (usually is), then there are business specializing in storing it, and providing certification that you indeed own this piece of paper, with in turn says you own X tonnes of cocoa of such grade at some location.
- walrus01 10y agoI don't think you can treat it like a commodity exchange (futures contracts for N tons of soybeans, for example), even if you restict the platform only to dried flower bud product and ignore every other form of cannabis, due to the extreme variety of types of flower and plant. It would be like trying to have a chicago mercantile exchange commodity platform for wine.
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- danvayn 10y agoI like the URL for this article.
- mynegation 10y agoI find it questionable on YC part to fund a cannabis-related company. On one hand, there is a clear... growth opportunity, on another - in my opinion it is pretty much on par with financing something tobacco-related and may be detrimental to YC's public image. To be perfectly clear, I am pro-legalization, as war on drugs only funnels money to criminal organizations, as if we did not learn anything from Prohibtion era. I still consider cannabis public evil in a way tobacco and excessive consumption of alcohol are public evil.
- vkou 10y agoIf you're going to measure societal impact, there's plenty of tech companies that care only about their vision - social externalities be damned. Some of them receive YC funding.
- tunesmith 10y agoI find it so difficult to express that opinion these days. Especially given the conflicting thought on how "bad" it is for you recreationally - I see certain opinions all the way from it being completely harmless to doing long-term irreversible damage. I feel like such a fuddy-duddy objecting to pot usage around me.
- jostmey 10y agoTotally agree. Using pot is a poor decision. I feel like too many people are of the opinion that pot somehow makes them smarter or better or more creative or fights off cancer.
- beisner 10y agoMost people don't think that pot will improve their abilities. Most people that use it think that it's an enjoyable recreational experience with no lasting negative effects when consumed in moderation.
- jabits 10y agoHow about "...consider _ excessive _ cannabis public evil in a way tobacco and excessive consumption of alcohol are public evil..." I don't get your distinction between cannabis and alcohol for recreational vs excessive use.
- sverige 10y agoNo, no, no, no! This will just make it easier for Big Ag (Monsanto, ConAgra, ADM, et al.) to dominate the market. The plant itself will be "improved" with foreign DNA so it can be mass-cultivated using chemical enhancements. Next will be the intentional squeezing out of strains that are non-GMO. Then margins will decrease for producers and varieties will be strictly limited. Then comes all the people who care doing little crowd-funded projects to preserve genetic variety. Don't think it could happen? Do a little research on corn or cotton or sunflowers or soybeans. Whether you ingest the stuff or not (I don't), this kind of thing only helps pave the way for truly nefarious corporate actors. Source: raised in Iowa, son of a farmer, grandson-in-law of a deceased executive of one of the Big Ag companies, and former pothead living in Colorado.
- xyzzy4 10y agoNow someone just needs to make a 2x and -2x cannabis ETN.
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- jacquesm 10y agoRidiculous that a quality brand like YC would be involved with a company like this.
- mbesto 10y ago"with a company like this" - care to elaborate?
- SamReidHughes 10y agoHow is this any different from funding Silk Road?
- mbesto 10y agoHow is it the same? Did you actually read the article? It's not actually a stock exchange for trading weed...
- SamReidHughes 10y agoThey're facilitating drug trafficking.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]