cryptocurrencies Archives - Green Market Report

StaffJune 1, 2022
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The cannabis industry has tried valiantly to incorporate crypto into its business with little success. It was seen as a great way to work around a banking system that was hostile toward the cannabis industry. However, the uptake has been slow and uneven results have caused many to stay on the sidelines in wait and see mode. That hasn’t kept some in the industry though from jumping in with both feet.

DocDollars the mogul, entrepreneur, and Director of cultivation and innovation for Praetorian Global is stepping in as one of the new founders of a group called the Crypto Bull SocietyFounded in October 2021, CBS is a private 4k NFT collection of 7,777 Crypto Bulls and 8,888 Crypto Bears – hand-drawn by the 3D artist Gal Yosef. Living on the Ethereum Blockchain, CBS grabbed the public’s attention and grew by more than 70,000 members within the first month. However, after months of explosive development, the project’s growth finally began to stall and the community grew restless of the previous owners’ empty promises and lack of progress. A few prominent members decided to take matters into their own hands. It was then decided that a new direction was needed, leading Floki, DocDollars (Doc), Drover, and Chris to take over control of the project in support of the community’s goals.

The group said that the previous founders were able to deliver to a point. When they could no longer support the project appropriately, an agreement was reached to turn over control of the project to the community itself. Since then, CBS has grown to more than 225,899 members and has still kept its core value intact: to make CBS the best NFT project in this space.

Cannabis Connection

Praetorian Global, which was founded in 2015, is the parent company for the luxury brand Binske Cannabis. In March, Praetorian announced it had entered into an agreement to buy all the intellectual property “IP” assets of Oni Seed Co. (“Oni”). The asset acquisition will add the intellectual property portfolio behind the world-renowned and award-winning Oni brand and product offerings and pipeline to Praetorian’s already burgeoning stable of cannabis and hemp intellectual property. Oni is also known for its art and merchandise.

“This is a monumental and transformative moment for our company, all of our shareholders and all of our current and future partners,” said Jacob Pasternack, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Praetorian. “We are thrilled to bring Oni’s rich and storied heritage and world-class IP into our portfolio. For years, Oni has a been a premier IP resource for cannabis brands, cultivators and infused product manufacturers looking to expand and sophisticate their product offerings. Oni’s proprietary products, know-how and methodologies have significant, broad-based application for all sizes and forms of flower cultivation, which correlates to 100 percent of the downstream products sold in retail outlets around the world.”

Crypto Bull Society

Other new leaders of the Crypto Bull Society include Floki, Drover, and Chris. 

Floki
Floki is the Founder & Architect of The Prime Cuts, an official partner of the Crypto Bull Society. A former leader in two of the world’s pre-eminent professional service firms, he serves as a global finance executive and Senior Leader to one of the world’s largest banks, spanning over 100 markets.

“Our community has never been stronger or more bullish on the future of CBS and the NFT market,” said Floki. “We’re excited for the future of CBS, and Web3. Together with our partnerships, and our passionate community members we believe we’re positioned as well as can be for growth.”

Drover
Founder, Chairman of the Board, entrepreneur, civil engineer, principal investor, and CEO of a successful real estate development firm for over 25 years; Drover is a man of many hats. Set to make a big debut in the tech industry with a new app called NAME, he currently serves as the Principal of an international cattle, agricultural, and feed business.

Chris
An accomplished business strategist and leader, Chris has over a decade’s worth of experience scaling Fortune 100 companies and startup tech brands. He is also the founder of the successful philanthropic eyewear brand X.

“Crypto Bull Society is truly one of a kind,” said Chris. “Not only are we one of the world’s first true 4K NFT collections, but we’re also run by the community itself. Less than one percent of NFT collections are community-led, and we’re proud to be one of them.”


Mitchell ColbertOctober 13, 2017
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Currencies can be backed by anything that has value. The earliest forms of currency were livestock and cowrie shells (the longest used currency in history), which pre-date metal coins. The first metal coinage was made in China around 1,000 B.C. and was made primarily from base metals (like copper or bronze) rather than precious metals (like silver or gold). In another 500 years, coins evolved to be made from silver and other precious metals. From there, the concept of money evolved further from things with actual value to things which had intangible value, and that was the birth of fiat currency, a currency backed by the faith that governments will make good on their debts.

That formerly unshakable faith in the governments of the world is quickly crumbling for many around the globe, and those skeptics of government fiat are turning to new currencies, backed by things much harder to corrupt than governments, data. Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency to be backed by the blockchain, an unalterable, encrypted yet transparent digital ledger. Due to the “mathematical difficulty of tampering the unique IDs encrypted into each block in the chain makes Blockchain immune to fraud.”

Stop for a moment and take that in. We now have a currency that is immune to fraud, even livestock wasn’t immune to fraud (take the example of cattle rustlers). You may be wondering, if a blockchain is just a collection of encrypted data, where does the value come from? If you are wondering that, go ask the RIAA or the MPAA how valuable data is, and remember that so-called pirated data was so valuable that it got entire websites shuttered. Not only does the blockchain provide a fraud-proof source of currency, it also is highly valuable in today’s data-driven world, and likely to only become more valuable over time.

But not all cryptocurrencies are created equal, not all are supported by a blockchain, and some are backed by less conventional commodities. For example, take Cannabis Coin, a cryptocurrency backed by “pharmaceutical grade cannabis.”

While it may sound like a great idea at first, since there is a lot of money to be made in the thriving cannabis industry, this makes about as much sense as backing a currency in wheat right before prohibition was repealed. The cost of cannabis is artificially inflated because of the black market, once it becomes legal the price will plummet, as will the value of any currency backed by it. Historically, there are reasons why currencies are most often things like metal or shells that withstand the test of time, rather than things that were perishable or consumable. Think about it. Cakecoin is a lie, and a terrible idea.

To make matters worse, cannabis is still federally illegal, and if the federal government ever needed a red flag to go after a cryptocurrency I can think of nothing better than drugs, as an unfortunate legacy from The Silk Road. But really, backing a currency by something federally illegal is utterly illogical. Could you imagine a Ransomcoin, where users “mine” by doing ransomware hacks? What about a PiracyCoin, where each download also mined a fraction of the next block? There are reasons why those don’t have URLs, yet Cannabis Coin was seen to be a good idea.

Thankfully, Cannabis Coin is the only cryptocurrency that is actually backed by cannabis, though it has many copy-cats and admirers, but none foolish enough or bold enough to rely on cannabis for their value.

The Other “Cannabis” Coins

CannaCoin: Their website appears to be down, which is probably for the best.
DopeCoin: While it has some photos of cannabis plants and seeds all over the site, that is all it has relating to cannabis.
PotCoin: This is what DopeCoin wishes it looked like with a way better site layout and press releases. Also no mention of being backed by cannabis. PotCoin appears to be a cryptocurrency attempting to offer cannabis businesses a way to bank, but a lot about it is not clear.
HempCoin: My honorable mention for Hemp History Week. HempCoin has utterly nothing to do with cannabis and certainly not hemp, it appears to be vying for the same niche as PotCoin.


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