This month we have some exciting developments around our supply chain visibility blockchain, ecommerce integrations of the Merchant Gateway, and the “High Tech” Event series. Additionally, we have continued our legislative efforts with the state of Nevada to aid in the creation of a cashless payment ecosystem for the cannabis industry. Let’s dive into some details around this news below.

“High Tech” 1.0 Event and Upcoming 2.0

The first “High Tech” 1.0 event produced in conjunction with Arcane Revelry, 27Club, and the LAWeekly took place last month in Los Angeles. The event was an exciting combination of music, virtual reality, cannabis, and of course, cryptocurrency — with Tokes at the forefront. Prohbtd screened selections from their new series Dope State along with a cast Q&A, which was followed by a screening of the Tokes Platform documentary Do You Take Tokes?. Event attendees received a small number of Tokes (TKS) upon arrival at the event via the Tokes Mobile Wallet, and could spend their Tokes with vendors running the Merchant Gateway to buy various swag at the event. The feedback from attendees was resoundingly positive with many noting the ease of using the app. The High Tech kick-off event was an invite-only affair with over 300 guests; including the likes of Krayzie Bone and Layzie Bone of Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Dash Radio co-host Keith G, Long Beach Dawg Crew member Yung Zeke, the Couto Brothers, and many cannabis business owners.

Events like this one serve a number of purposes for Tokes. First and foremost, they demonstrate to key stakeholders within the cannabis space the ease of cryptocurrency use at the point of sale for dispensaries. Second, these events allow us to onboard new users within targeted markets to the Tokes Platform. The 2.0 event is scheduled to take place on June 20th in Los Angeles at the G-Smatt warehouse. More details on this event will be shared through our media channels as the date moves closer. As we have mentioned previously, we have launched the website Tokes.io which focuses on the usage of our mobile application for guests at our promotional events like High Tech.

The LAWeekly had a recent article on the 1.0 Event you can read here.

Legislative Progress

Nevada’s legislative efforts to solve the cash-only problem of the cannabis industry have been making considerable progress in the past month. AB466 is a bill which will establish a pilot program for cashless payments within Nevada’s legal cannabis industry — providing a legislative framework for consumer to business, business to business, and business to tax authority transactions. We are pleased to note that the bill is likely to be passed within the Nevada Assembly in the coming days, with a Senate vote to follow.

Once this legislation has become law, there will be a clear path for Tokes to easily interface our payment processing functionality with the state for tax purposes. For example, a dispensary that utilizes the Tokes Platform Merchant Gateway for consumer payments in their facility can then use our payment functionality to remit tax payments to the state, reducing the cash liability for both operators and state employees. This will take several months to become implemented, but we are proactively gearing up for this deployment in the lead up to the program’s implementation. Vault Logic kiosks onsite will serve as the consumer point of entry within the dispensary and the businesses will utilize the Merchant Gateway for consumer purchases at the point of sale.

EPCIS Chain

The team has been making considerable strides on the production of the EPCIS Chain. Particularly, user interfaces and query tools are being prototyped around the underlying blockchain infrastructure for supply chains. While there is obvious utility to producing a blockchain backend for the data provenance of supply chains, we are exploring new ways to visualize vast amounts of supply chain data that go beyond the typical enterprise resource planning (ERP) interfaces. API integration with multiple ERP systems is a core function of our EPCIS compatible chain, however giving the business stakeholders or even consumers a tool to better visualize the life cycle of a product is a considerable value add. A prototype of the upcoming dashboard can be seen in the below rendering.

Our first deployment of this blockchain, as mentioned previously, is with our partner at Theracann International. Theracann has made considerable strides as of late around the development and deployment of their ETCH BioTrace system with new partners, CannAcubed, a pioneer in the Chinese hemp and cannabis markets.

Ecommerce

Development on eccommerce solutions is in full swing, with two key areas of development occurring as of late. First, we are finalizing development on the ecommerce integrations of the Merchant Gateway, providing a number of tools that will empower merchants with the option to enable Tokes as a payment option at checkout for their existing online storefronts.

Second, within the coming month, Shopify users will have a plugin they can utilize to accept Tokes (and a number of other cryptocurrencies) with their existing Shopify stores. We will make a large announcement around this feature when it is live and ready for integration in the Shopify App Store!