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Pot seems like a natural fit for cryptocurrency. There's several currencies which are designed specifically for this space (e.g. HempCoin - http://www.hempcoin.

Pot seems like a natural fit for cryptocurrency. There's several currencies which are designed specifically for this space (e.g. HempCoin - http://www.hempcoin.org/ http://www.hempcoin.org/ - THC). As far as I can tell the weed cryptos seem to be mostly speculative in nature as retailers are dealing in cash as the article states.

koolba 9y ago
That would only work if you can get the customers to pay you in the crypto coin. The retail side of the weed business is lots of small dollar transactions done in cash. Converting that to crypto requires a full scale cash-to-crypto operation that is effectively the definition of money laundering (or at least solving the same problem).
- Turbots 9y ago
  Give it another six months... Cryptocurrencies are becoming a hype and the masses are picking it up... trading is through the roof, total market cap is going through the roof. Once more and more people know how to use a wallet or crypto apps to pay with, these things will be unstoppable! Adoption of cryptocurrency payments will be MUCH quicker than smartphone adoption in my opinion, and that took us less than 10 years
- apple_touchbar 9y ago
  Plus, would they want to wait 20+ hours for a transaction to process?
  - PretzelPirate 9y ago
    There isn't any reason why they would need to accept Bitcoin instead of a token with faster confirmation time.
- bufferoverflow 9y ago
  No, converting cash to crypto is NOT money laundering. Money laundering is when you get dirty money and try to convert it into legal clean money. I'm this case there's no dirty money, it's just banks are scared of the feds, so they refuse to take it.
  - vidarh 9y ago
    They're scared of the feds because the money was the result of a violation of federal law. It's dirty money to anyone that has to deal with the feds.
chrsstrm 9y ago
Except that it isn't. At some point your coins have to be converted to USD. You can't pay your employees in cryptocurrency, you can't pay your electric bill in cryptocurrency, you can't pay your rent/mortgage in cryptocurrency. If you think just because you did a USD -> coin -> USD flip that no one will consider it laundering or ask where the proceeds came from, guess again.
- spmurrayzzz 9y ago
  You may not be able to directly pay entities, but you can easily do so through a liquidity aggregator. If that aggregation vehicle is through a privacy-focused coin like Monero or Zcash, or anything onion routed (e.g. Lightning network), how exactly do you demonstrate laundering? This really is no different than dealing in cash presently. Employees still need to report their income, even when paid in cash, so even in that event they'd still be subject to any laundering concerns of the federal government given the paper trail follows back to the dispensary entity. Same with any other entities they're paying in cash (unless they are dodging reporting requirements). Crypto solves the problem (partially) of where to store your revenue instead of a bank. Its just a better way than the alternative of paying security outfits to guard your heaps of cash— its judgment-resistant and reasonably easy to liquidate. The biggest problem with that use case right now is obviously price fluctuations. Not sure anyone is comfortable using a volatile asset class for that at present.
  - jonknee 9y ago
    > Crypto solves the problem (partially) of where to store your revenue instead of a bank. How exactly? You run a pot shop and end the day with $10,000 in USD. What happens next?
    - hndamien 9y ago
      Go buy Monero from local Monero.
      - saganus 9y ago
subway 9y ago
Posibit is how a number of rec pot shops in WA currently accept credit cards. The gist of it is that you as an individual are buying currency from Posibit, then your currency is transfered to the account of the shop (all off-chain). The shop then sells their BTC (often the moment they receive it) back to Posibit.
- Karrot_Kream 9y ago
  Sure but doesn't this still necessitate having a bank to store the cash they sell the BTC for? Or do the pot shops store their cash in their Posabit account?
  - subway 9y ago
    The storage of cash situation is is a weird one nobody really talks about. It's unclear to me how Posabit gets USD back to the retailer, but my understanding is the funds moving from Posabit to retailers happens as USD. Due to the fact retailers have to move large sums of cash, and can't store it in a bank easily, they're pretty tight lipped about the situation (pot shops being robbed at the end of the night isn't unheard of).
davidw 9y ago
Pot seems like a natural fit for the banking system that, say, microbreweries use. It's just that we have idiots like Jeff Sessions in the way.
- meddlepal 9y ago
  It's hard to blame Jeff Session here... he's just enforcing the law as it is written. Congress needs to do its job.
  - wolco 9y ago
    I think its easy to blame him because he is choosing to enforce a policy that was previously not enforced.
    - Turing_Machine 9y ago
      Laws that aren't enforced should be repealed. Selective enforcement is a recipe for tyranny. Though I personally think that weed should be legal, I'm not going to fault Sessions here. The ball's in Congress's court.
      - davidw 9y ago
        Sessions was a Senator until recently, so, yeah, still on idiots like him. I don't consume the stuff, by the way, but it's just been a huge win for Oregon. Millions in tax revenue, and the whole industry is now above board, cutting out any actual criminal types, freeing law enforcement resources for real crimes.
        Turing_Machine 9y ago
        Then maybe you should be lobbying your idiot Senator to introduce a federal legalization bill, rather than complaining about laws that are on the books being enforced. The problem with laws that "aren't enforced" is that they often do wind up being enforced. Selectively. Against anyone the government doesn't like for whatever reason.
InclinedPlane 9y ago
Can't pay rent in cryptocurrency. No one is going to pay you directly in cryptocurrency so that's a problem. No cryptocurrency is stable enough to allow for ordinary small business levels of operating margins. It sounds pretty terrible actually.
- mstodd 9y ago
  How is tether not stable?
mulmen 9y ago
What value does a cryptocurrency bring that cash does not?

koolba 9y ago

That would only work if you can get the customers to pay you in the crypto coin. The retail side of the weed business is lots of small dollar transactions done in cash. Converting that to crypto requires a full scale cash-to-crypto operation that is effectively the definition of money laundering (or at least solving the same problem).

Turbots 9y ago
Give it another six months... Cryptocurrencies are becoming a hype and the masses are picking it up... trading is through the roof, total market cap is going through the roof. Once more and more people know how to use a wallet or crypto apps to pay with, these things will be unstoppable! Adoption of cryptocurrency payments will be MUCH quicker than smartphone adoption in my opinion, and that took us less than 10 years
apple_touchbar 9y ago
Plus, would they want to wait 20+ hours for a transaction to process?
- PretzelPirate 9y ago
  There isn't any reason why they would need to accept Bitcoin instead of a token with faster confirmation time.
bufferoverflow 9y ago
No, converting cash to crypto is NOT money laundering. Money laundering is when you get dirty money and try to convert it into legal clean money. I'm this case there's no dirty money, it's just banks are scared of the feds, so they refuse to take it.
- vidarh 9y ago
  They're scared of the feds because the money was the result of a violation of federal law. It's dirty money to anyone that has to deal with the feds.

chrsstrm 9y ago

Except that it isn't. At some point your coins have to be converted to USD. You can't pay your employees in cryptocurrency, you can't pay your electric bill in cryptocurrency, you can't pay your rent/mortgage in cryptocurrency. If you think just because you did a USD -> coin -> USD flip that no one will consider it laundering or ask where the proceeds came from, guess again.

spmurrayzzz 9y ago
You may not be able to directly pay entities, but you can easily do so through a liquidity aggregator. If that aggregation vehicle is through a privacy-focused coin like Monero or Zcash, or anything onion routed (e.g. Lightning network), how exactly do you demonstrate laundering? This really is no different than dealing in cash presently. Employees still need to report their income, even when paid in cash, so even in that event they'd still be subject to any laundering concerns of the federal government given the paper trail follows back to the dispensary entity. Same with any other entities they're paying in cash (unless they are dodging reporting requirements). Crypto solves the problem (partially) of where to store your revenue instead of a bank. Its just a better way than the alternative of paying security outfits to guard your heaps of cash— its judgment-resistant and reasonably easy to liquidate. The biggest problem with that use case right now is obviously price fluctuations. Not sure anyone is comfortable using a volatile asset class for that at present.
- jonknee 9y ago
  > Crypto solves the problem (partially) of where to store your revenue instead of a bank. How exactly? You run a pot shop and end the day with $10,000 in USD. What happens next?
  - hndamien 9y ago
    Go buy Monero from local Monero.
    - saganus 9y ago

subway 9y ago

Posibit is how a number of rec pot shops in WA currently accept credit cards. The gist of it is that you as an individual are buying currency from Posibit, then your currency is transfered to the account of the shop (all off-chain). The shop then sells their BTC (often the moment they receive it) back to Posibit.

Karrot_Kream 9y ago
Sure but doesn't this still necessitate having a bank to store the cash they sell the BTC for? Or do the pot shops store their cash in their Posabit account?
- subway 9y ago
  The storage of cash situation is is a weird one nobody really talks about. It's unclear to me how Posabit gets USD back to the retailer, but my understanding is the funds moving from Posabit to retailers happens as USD. Due to the fact retailers have to move large sums of cash, and can't store it in a bank easily, they're pretty tight lipped about the situation (pot shops being robbed at the end of the night isn't unheard of).

davidw 9y ago

Pot seems like a natural fit for the banking system that, say, microbreweries use. It's just that we have idiots like Jeff Sessions in the way.

meddlepal 9y ago
It's hard to blame Jeff Session here... he's just enforcing the law as it is written. Congress needs to do its job.
- wolco 9y ago
  I think its easy to blame him because he is choosing to enforce a policy that was previously not enforced.
  - Turing_Machine 9y ago
    Laws that aren't enforced should be repealed. Selective enforcement is a recipe for tyranny. Though I personally think that weed should be legal, I'm not going to fault Sessions here. The ball's in Congress's court.
    - davidw 9y ago
      Sessions was a Senator until recently, so, yeah, still on idiots like him. I don't consume the stuff, by the way, but it's just been a huge win for Oregon. Millions in tax revenue, and the whole industry is now above board, cutting out any actual criminal types, freeing law enforcement resources for real crimes.
      - Turing_Machine 9y ago
        Then maybe you should be lobbying your idiot Senator to introduce a federal legalization bill, rather than complaining about laws that are on the books being enforced. The problem with laws that "aren't enforced" is that they often do wind up being enforced. Selectively. Against anyone the government doesn't like for whatever reason.

InclinedPlane 9y ago

Can't pay rent in cryptocurrency. No one is going to pay you directly in cryptocurrency so that's a problem. No cryptocurrency is stable enough to allow for ordinary small business levels of operating margins. It sounds pretty terrible actually.

mstodd 9y ago
How is tether not stable?

mulmen 9y ago

What value does a cryptocurrency bring that cash does not?