DopeCoin, the world’s first cannabis-themed digital coin, has announced the first official Grow Network for DopeCoin, with the first grow opening in Canada. DopeCoin is an open source peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that’s designed specifically for the cannabis industry in order to provide a safer and faster way of doing business.

GROW network

Joining the Grow Network, growers will be able to peg their cannabis plants to DopeCoin. Similar to the idea of a currency being pegged to gold, DopeCoin hopes to not only stabilize but also increase the valuation of its currency unit by tying it to physical cannabis product.

Following the news, the market cap of DopeCoin started an upwards trajectory rising approximately 34% within 24 hours. Currently, one DopeCoin is worth US$0.000170 at the time of writing.

Additionally, to protect this investment, the current Grow will also receive a steel re-enforced vault with titanium locks to store the harvest, real-time transparent tracking with a 24/7 webcam to be installed soon with calendar clocks, and a stock/asset certificate to be issued to anyone who wants proof-of-ownership. This way, any DopeCoin user will be able to track and verify the existence of a real product that’s backing the digital currency.

Cointelegraph spoke with the founder of DopeCoin, James Allen, about the new Grow network, DopeCoin’s “peg” to cannabis and plans for the future.

“Full transparency like this has not been done by any other weed-themed coin.” - DopeCoin Founder, James Allen

Cointelegraph: Which grow op specifically is working with DopeCoin?

James Allen: At the moment the specific location and operation of the grow op is being kept secret for safety/privacy concerns, but it is in Canada. This particular grow has opted out of being known. Others who join the network can be known if they so choose.

CT: How is cannabis "pegged" exactly?



JA: So 5,000 DopeCoins could equal one gram and as price rises that amount shrinks. I don’t want to give the impression that 1 gram would ever equal 1 DopeCoin - my guess is it will get to 1,000 per gram but at that time it would have to be in top 25 by market cap but that won't be for a while.

In order to increase the value of individual DopeCoins we want to start artificially increasing its value with what we call pegging. You can think of it as reverse quantitative easing, as you would base the price on the DopeCoins being worth more while DopeCoin covers the difference so the grow op isn’t in the red when it sells, say to a dispensary or to the public (if they choose to). With each additional grow we repeat the process as each grow will have different terms.

CT: How do the harvests work? Do the shareholders literally receive cannabis for holding DopeCoin?



JA: The harvest will set aside x amount of bud at the time of harvest. Typically, there is so much excessive supply of cannabis in a harvest that there would be incentive to peg it to a cryptocurrency like DopeCoin, thus giving grow ops incentive to join the network so their DopeCoin stash value can increase.

As of this moment, shareholders (unless local to the grow ) won’t physically receive the cannabis, but they will know the value they hold in DopeCoin, which will be tied directly to the bud they put aside This is why this would be a good investment for all parties involved:

If the person wants to buy cannabis (they live near the grow ) for DopeCoin, they can do so theoretically. But more importantly, when cannabis becomes legal across the country and even the world (it will eventually), transactions can be performed in DopeCoin from the grow op to dispensary to the end consumer. At that point, “shareholders” could theoretically receive cannabis for holding DopeCoin.

Keep in mind that if the grow op does decide to “sell off” their supply to a dispensary (upon a board vote approval) the stakeholders could make money this way also. There are many ways to invest in cannabis, which will be lucrative to both parties.

CT: Will every grow be supported with a re-enforced vault, titanium locks etc?

JA: There will be standard best practices in place as one of the requirements will be some sort of re-enforced vault, titanium locks to help secure the supply so yes this will be one of the requirements. It all depends on the grow op who contacts us.

CT: Is the stock/asset proof of ownership certificate on the blockchain?

JA: This is one way this will be done. The proof of ownership certificate can take place in the blockchain so yes we'll be looking into this.

“We want to be visually auditable as well as paper auditable upon request.”

CT: Will every grow have 24/7 tracking/video streaming?

JA: This is one of the more important aspects because full transparency like this has not been done by any other weed-themed coin. We want to be visually auditable as well as paper auditable upon request. It will include a 24/7 streaming/video system with some kind of identifiers (calendar clock to a backdrop of cannabis) to help support its provability. Plus, people like being able to see their investment any time of the day or year.

We are even thinking of doing a Virtual Reality type system around the grow where people can literally “step in” into their investment and walk around. But, yes this will be requirement for any grow. If its paper, the harvest’s weight will be recorded and put onto the blockchain for all to see.

CT: What other grows have expressed interest in joining? How do you see this affecting the price of dopecoin?



JA: When we launched, we got our first grow op fairly quickly and we haven’t even advertized it really. We have a few marketing campaigns to bring on in the next few weeks to target a few hundred grow ops around the world. So far, the price has had a slight tick up and the news has been positively received so far within the Dopecoin community.

We think with every introduction of a new grow, and, more importantly, with the continuous tracking and documentation via our blog (dopecoin.info) with pictures and videos, we’ll see both the price and interest grow for DopeCoin.

CT: Will this work in the US, particularly in states where cannabis is fully legal?

JA: We believe this will work in the U.S and worldwide, especially where Cannabis is legal. There are instances where cryptocurrencies can already be used to buy cannabis such as here. We expect to scale much quicker in terms of going to market because we start at the source and work our way to the consumer, all using DopeCoin. We also plan on reaching out to partners such as Eazeup, which will deliver Cannabis to peoples’ doors and transact in DopeCoin.

CT: Where can DopeCoin be used right now? How do you plan to grow and scale it?

JA: We are working on our own merchant platform, which should be done by the year’s end. It will allow any merchant to sell their items with DopeCoin (and any other weed coin for that matter). We have two shops that do sell for DopeCoin. Our community is currently voting on the name for our own merchant platform here.

As mentioned above we believe we can start at the source (the grow op) and work our way to all the major cannabis retailers all the while enabling the ability to use DopeCoin in the process. Both DopeCoin and our network can scale together as we introduce a better infrastructure on both sides of the coin.

“We are also always working on anonymous ways to protect end to end transactions for our user base.”

CT: Why does the industry need its own coin? Can't bitcoin be used instead?

JA: One thing that does get overlooked between bitcoin and a coin like DopeCoin is transactions are instant versus the 10 minutes or so wait time. Another thing that separates us from bitcoin is we are Proof of Stake, which allows people to essentially earn interest on the DopeCoin stash they already have.

We are also always working on anonymous ways to protect end to end transactions for our user base. We plan on some killer innovation around this over the next year or two. There is no question about it, if Bitcoin were to go up in smoke (no pun intended and highly unlikely), DopeCoin would fail to exist, most likely. We feel there can be two rails for this ride and DopeCoin plans on winning the cannabis industry over! ***

If you are running a legal grow operation, you can join the GROW Network and receive the Grow Ownership Plan by sending a request to [email protected]. Each plan is discussed individually and depends on current market prices.

The current Grow is scheduled for harvest in early October.