A Marriage made in Heaven – (Cannabis and Bitcoin)

When you are a young person concentrating on your education (not necessarily in the classroom and perhaps I should have said in whatever way you chose to acquire your knowledge and skills) you may have some goals you expect to achieve. As a youthful human you may think you will make steady progress over your lifetime toward these objectives. If you have some years under your belt you can’t help to smile at the naiveté. With experience you will learn the punishing twists and turns, hills and valleys you will encounter even if you become one of the lucky souls to actually reach your objectives. Along the way you will meet up with disappointment, tragedy and the luck that will make your life’s path anything but straight. When certain chance opportunities materialize shame on you if you don’t full capitalize on your lucky break.

So it is with everything in life. Even for Bitcoin the path will not be steady or straight. With loftier goals come greater resistance, friction, disappointment, intrigue, calamity and heartache. In some of the most challenging endeavors one actually must be prepared to shed blood and risk ones’ demise. And certainly some periods of time will be spent in full retreat. Nations with FIAT currencies will experience precipitous declines in value such as experienced recently by the Ruble. Cypriot or other banks will seize bank deposits again. Pressure as simple as the world’s tourism industry expands and inconveniences the travel process with money exchanges and friction of fees push the adoption of a global currency. The rest of the world will continue to covet and fear the geopolitical power wielded by the superior currencies like the dollar and central banks. Obstacles will also provide plenty of speed bumps to the adoption of global crypto-currencies. The battle against fractional reserve banking with huge implication for the control of money supply and a host of other issues not withstanding currencies of countries that carry little value in global markets.

If you wake up every morning and check the relative price of Bitcoin to a FIAT currency like the dollar you are not a big help to the cause of liberation to the mass of humanity waiting for a level financial playing field. You are just a speculator. Trying to catch a fast break on your own auspicious goals. You want to understand what it takes for adoption to occur you need to check the price of milk, bread and butter in Bitcoin. If you live in the USA you don’t check the price of the Euro verses the dollar before you buy breakfast do you? You really just want to know that the price is holding steady with what it cost you yesterday for two dots and a dash (two eggs and a slice of bacon). You appreciate a bargain and complain about any gouging but that is what you do if you are using a currency even if you hope that in the long run it becomes a significant store of value and appreciates with the service it performs.

With Bitcoin we have seen the rise and many falls. Expectations have been often lofty and surreal. Regardless that Bitcoin is destined to become the global currency and financial platform of the future. But there are times in history that the proverbial butterfly’s wings in the Amazon have repercussions and make tragedies in Montana. The intensification and exponential expansion of technology are enabled at times by simple needs and curious anomalies. The point is that the destiny of technological innovation is often facilitated by random events converging at just the right time. Technologies have expired or their adoption has been seriously delayed by random seemingly trivial events or economic gyrations. So it is now the prime opportunity to mate Bitcoin to Cannabis.

Many States have authorized medicinal uses for Cannabis and three so far have legalized the consumption for recreational use. The trend is set and the opportunity is now ripening. The businesses involved have become intensely cash reliant businesses as banks have refused to provide fundamental banking services to the dispensaries and retailers. Bank are concerned they will be violating Federal laws even if the State has decriminalized and made the activity legal. Massive opportunity for Bitcoin that needs to be addressed by the combined ecosystem of high flying Crypto-Currency and similarly the fast tracking Cannabis industry saddled with pallets full of clumsy, bulky FIAT Currency. All that cash is a serious incentive to creating opportunities for massive security risks.

Some have already dabbled as Cannabis Coin has been minted for the purpose and a few dispensaries are accepting Bitcoins for payment. Notably in Washington State. But the ecosystem needs to be created where like-minded individuals can geographically create a closed loop of Bitcoin payments that do not get converted to FIAT currencies but are used for everything from payroll to purchasing the basics of life, houses, cars, food and clothing.

Payment systems, ATMs and various other infrastructure systems need to be provided to the Cannabis industry and prove that Bitcoin is an ecosystem that needs no “on” or “off” ramping. Colorado has even licensed a Credit Union to try to address the issue, so time is of the essence. With Bitcoin merchants will have a remarkably convenient and friction-free currency to transact business and even more so those geographies intensely cultivating the Cannabis opportunity will attract masses of retailers selling bread, milk, butter and, my favorite, bacon for Bitcoin. Once that happens we will be all wondering why the dollar is so volatile every morning as we eat breakfast.