Bitcoin Forum

I would say it would be a match made in heaven.

http://www.btcfeed.net/news/marijuana-industry-embrace-bitcoin/

For many people marijuana=crime. Places where marijuana is legal are very rare. So I would be very cautious in connecting these two things. For average Joe who does not have clue about bitcoin it would be very easy to connect shady substances with illegal sources of money etc. What can lead to bad press for bitcoin...

From what I hear it already has

Legal shops are having trouble getting bank accounts due to uncertainty about Federal law. As the number of states with legal pot climbs there is a huge need to process and store large amounts of money.

We are ready to take over the world meet the dopecoin team (http://dopecoin.com/our_team.php)!  ;D

Ok, ok ...maybe , not the world but close to it , ya ?

There has been so much bad press already with the silk road I don't think a bunch of medical dispensaries accepting Bitcoin would do any damage, quite the opposite I would argue.

If a nation put something illegal doesn't  "always" mean that thing is bad or not good, however if the marijuana industry embrace bitcoin it is their choice and we can't stop them.

In the Netherlands buying marijuana is like buying food at Mcdonalds. If one of them accepts bitcoin it would be worldwide news.

In the USA, the lack of banking services leaves too much cash around:

"Everyone in the industry is having nightmares,” says Michael Elliott, executive director of the Marijuana Industry Group, a powerful young lobby in Colorado. “You hit a 7-Eleven, you’ll get 20 bucks. You hit a dispensary, you’ll get $300,000 on a good day,” adds Mitch Morrissey, District Attorney for Denver. “It’s only a matter of time before someone gets shot."
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/legal-pot/high-crimes-robber-gangs-terrorize-colorado-pot-shops-n20111

Hopefully, the shops can afford armed security to fight off the thieves.

True enough their is a market for a stable enough quick means of moving capital around
This could be done through bitcoin
More selling pressure though so hope someone holds their coins :)
(Does build the infrastructure base as well though)

I think all industries should embrace bitcoin.

No! BTC's already suffering from having an image sometimes associated with terrorism, drugs, and various kinds of illegal or immoral activities. If we want it to go mainstream, it's got to get a cleaner image. How about BTC to finance charities which help orphans and widows? That would be better.

+1
Many people already associate bitcoin with drugs... Easy target for media... bad bad bitcoin...  :-\

I agree on this. Maybe the Bitcoin Market and the Marijuana Industry could help each other out in a great deal once MJ embraces bitcoin.

Cui bono?

Every industry should embrace Bitcoin.  Including but not limited to the marijuana industry.

Of course it should imo all industry's across the board should then we will truly have mass adoption.

Plus dispensaries in the US deal with alot of cash which can only help Bitcoin in the long run, i followed POT coin a little and they are in the process of trying to do it the legal way and should set the way for Bitcoin unless BTC manages to get the go ahead sooner.

Either way it is good stuff imo

It definately will. I'm confident any market that's in shady areas, like adult video, weapon purchase... will seek the help of Bitcoin.

What's criminal about the legal marijuana industry? It's a billion dollar industry in the USA alone and cannabis legalization is slowly spreading worldwide.


Let them think that. Bitcoin is a currency and you should be able to buy what you want with it.

But this would cause people who are not entirely aware of bitcoin's use to steer clear of it and prevent the mass adoption that we are trying to reach.

So we need bitcoin to be only used for buying puppies chocolate and flowers because people wont deal with it otherwise? Do these people throw their fiat away once they realize you can buy drugs and porn with it? No. Some may stay clear but time will prove them how silly they were top do so.

i think is important to be able to buy mj for bitcoins to remain anonymity

That might be a good use for bitcoin on the darkweb and for illegal purchases but for the legal mj industry you'll likely need ID etc, though bitcoin could still be a great medium to pay with to avoid you being linked to the purchase or if your bank won't allow purchases at dispensaries. Some dispensaries even seem to have trouble finding banks who will work with them so bitcoin could find a use there too.

Any industry should embrace Bitcoin. It's simply a better payment system than fiat, period. Marijuana is no exception.

By the way, whether marijuana is "illicit" or not, is completely dependent of whether you live in a retarded state or country or not. Unfortunately, lots of countries have very retarded, inconsistent laws on drugs. They allow dangerous addictive harddrugs like alcohol, yet they forbid much less dangerous substances like marijuana. But that's a problem with the particular government, not with the money we use to pay for it.

I agree. I'm all for legalization and believe it is Looooong over due. However, The foundation of Bitcoin is still very new and if we want to continue
building it stronger we should keep it clean. I live in a small town in Michigan, where medical use is legal and the older generations don't embrace that.
Also, I am one of a few in a population of about 2000 people who even know what bitcoin is!!! Now, go and tell these people we can use this new form
of currency to purchase weed over the internet or local providers and watch the REEFER MADNESS set in!!! They will hang our Bitcoin
in the town square and stone it!!! And this is one of thousands of small towns with "older ways" of thinkin'. Plus let us not forget these are the people who
run the court house and sit in the chairs at our state senate!!! First we need--- Bitcoin acceptance.

Yes mate.. I'll pretty confidant about it too.. Now that marijuana industry is growing..i think being linked with it will help both parties!

Yep, the boomer generation is a problem that needs to be dealt with, they are ignorant and closed minded unfortunately. They also trust everything the TV says!

If you believe in polls, legal recreational marijuana has recently exceeded 50% approval by American citizens.  I don't think that number is going down, and there is a significant number of investors getting involved with this new industry.

I think this is a limited opportunity for bitcoin.   Federal laws prohibit the marijuana industry from using the federal banking system for a federally prohibited substance.   

If the states of Colorado and Washington (and future legal states) want to protect their new industries and new tax revenue (rather than allowing it to revert to criminal cartels and dealing with government costs of prosecuting and imprisoning users and traffickers) then it would be in their best interests to promote the use of bitcoin within their states.

A useful bitcoin economy could gain a foothold outside of the banking system -- until the banking system wants their piece of the pie.   With some corporations spending more on federal lobbyists to preserve corporate tax loopholes and lower corporate tax rates than they actually spend on federal taxes, this will come sooner than later.

Yeah well, it's time for that to change.

For many people in the early 1990s, internet = some nonsense cyber toy for nerds.

Do not forget that the majority of internet traffic in the early years was for the consumption of pornography.

LOL I think it still is. :)

I'm the one who created the "other" Marijuana thread on Reddit last week.

I was bewildered by the fact that they're pouring millions into security services to haul around bags full of cash instead of just using Bitcoin.

But the obvious thing I overlooked:  They cant use bitcoin because of its volatility.  In their case, they would *need* to keep it "all in bitcoin" with no cashing out to USD, because they have no banking.   In that scenario, Bitcoin is not a feasible solution.  The only people who can hold Bitcoin these days are speculators. 

-B-

Yes, obviously!  I'm off to smoke a joint right now folks ...

Chicken and egg problem.   If the marijuana industry sees that it is more efficient to deal with bitcoin rather than bricks of currency, and the state government has a self-interest in promoting the new industry, then it will promote the use of bitcoin as legal tender (paying state taxes), easing regulations for non-bank businesses to convert between dollars, etc.   Stores will be more interested in using a BitPay-like systems to accept payments since there will be a significant amount of people that work in the marijuana industry that get paid in bitcoin.   As a real bitcoin economy develops out of necessity, the bitcoin price will rise and become less volatile when it reaches a new equilibrium.



     

I'm sure they said it would never take off or only be used for criminals as well.


Exactly. New technologies are always usually adopted by geeks and criminals because they know when they see a good thing, but it takes a while for the mainstream to get on board.

I would disagree with this. A weed dispensary could sell the bitcoin they receive from their sales either automatically via bitpay/coinbase or they could sell it manually every day via any exchange. There is no reason why they need to hold the bitcoin they receive, although it would probably make sense to hold a portion of it.

They could potentially generate a large number of private keys offsite, one for each anticipated customer and provide the public addresses to the physical stores every day and then push transactions that are sending their receipts to an exchange

Definitely! These companies are having a hard time getting traditional banks and credit card providers to service their business transactions because of the type of business they do. Bitcoin has no such discrimination!

The marijuana industry definitely should. The advantages of using Bitcoin are manifold.

The possible drawback for Bitcoin is that this would perpetuate the belief that bitcoins are primarily used by drug dealers and cyber-criminals.

Eventually they will probably get on board the bitcoin train like everyone else.

But marijuana has nothing to do with criminals (cyber or not). Marijuana is getting legalized in more and more states.

By the way, you can already pay with Bitcoin in tons of bars and restaurants. They obviously sell alcohol. Doesn't that link Bitcoin to drugs?