The famous green leaf gets all the cannabis spotlight. Indeed, the plant itself is rapidly gaining recognition and acceptance as governments around the world pass or at least consider legislation allowing for the use of medical or recreational marijuana. This shift in policy has put a jet engine on the legal cannabis market, expected to rocket forward in the coming years.

So marijuana certainly deserves some credit. But there are other sectors of the cannabis market making huge leaps and bounds that may not be so well known. These are the cannabis extracts and concentrates that are quickly improving in quality thanks to legalization and regulation that oversees their production and use.

CBD, one of the best researched and most in-demand of these extracts has even been estimated by The Hemp Business Journal to be on track to reach a global market worth of $2.1 billion by 2020, a ridiculous 700% increase from 2016’s figure of $202 million. But why?

CBD is generating a lot of buzz for a number of reasons. First, extensive research is constantly highlighting the potential health benefits of CBD products. Clinical trials have suggested that CBD might have numerous anti-inflammatory and anti-anxiety effects with other potential benefits in the treatment of anxiety, psychosis, arthritis, cancer, diabetes, epilepsy, nausea and pain.

Second, CBD is a non-psychoactive marijuana extract. That means the potentially healing products made from the extract, including oil, drops, vaporizers, wax, gummies, drips, dabs and chocolates don’t bring the “high” that cannabis or some of its other compounds like THC do.

This is a crucial factor that wins CBD points in the legalization department. Policy makers and private individuals who realize the potential medical applications of marijuana but worry over its psychoactive effects are more likely to feel at ease with CBD, giving it space to be cultivated within the framework of a well-regulated industry.

And the CBD market is getting additional boosts from some interesting places, like blockchain.

Cannabium is a blockchain venture that has backed a crypto token with real world CBD and aims to create a level playing field between consumers and producers with an easy, approachable and transparent blockchain marketplace. The team envisions the Cannabium token as the standard method of payment for medical cannabis extract trading on the blockchain.

Bringing the decentralized character of blockchain into the picture makes CBD that much more appealing and extends its reach even further. Looks like CBD and other cannabis extracts can only go up from here.