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Dash + CannTrade + Alt Thirty Six [Project Update 10/31/17]

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Adam Holub

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CannTrade Pre-Proposal Document:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hBZxTMyBb3ylyaL0ZLyU0jFWzcgS8jczRehZifKSpEQ/edit?usp=sharing

CannTrade Pre-Proposal


CannTrade, California’s premier cannabis specific B2B marketplace & CRM has partnered with Alt Thirty Six to deliver the first truly comprehensive and expedient banking & digital payment solution to the cannabis industry. Our goal is to establish Dash as the go-to currency for the fastest growing industry in the world.

If approved, this proposal would help fund:
  • Continued development, quality assurance, and launch of Dash specific features on the CannTrade Platform + Multi-Level Integration with the 36 + Dash driven payment solution

  • Marketing & Education Campaigns to promote user adoption of Dash in the B2B wholesale, B2B retail, and B2C cannabis markets.

CannTrade has signed an exclusivity agreement with the Dash Core team to ensure Dash is the only digital currency available on the CannTrade platform for a 36 month time period.

We hope this proposal will clearly communicate who we are, what we’ve already created, and what our roadmap for the future holds with regards to this project. We welcome questions, comments, and concerns, and look forward to hearing from and conversing with the Dash community.

Our Company:


CannTrade is a technology platform that facilitates transactions between all businesses along the cannabis distribution chain, as well as linking in the ancillary and 3rd party services needed to support the burgeoning industry. The CannTrade platform is comprised of three pillars:

  1. A legally compliant online B2B cannabis marketplace
  2. A cannabis specific CRM that empowers businesses to manage their accounts and drive sales
  3. A growing database of businesses, wholesale data, and lead generation tools.

Since our controlled beta release in late April, CannTrade has captured over 320 verified businesses in CA and AZ. Our clients include genetics companies, cultivators, manufacturers, distributors, brands, and dispensaries.

We plan to expand to and establish a strong presence in all states with viable cannabis regulation within 18 months.

Our website is www.canntrade.com. You can read about my fellow co-founders and I below, at the bottom of this document.

Problems CannTrade Solves

There are several challenges and pitfalls facing cannabis businesses that make the industry fairly unique. First, it is the only large industry that does not have the simple ability to order online at a wholesale level. Orders for many businesses come in through a host of mediums, most often via text, but also through phone calls, emails, spreadsheets, chat, and even instagram comments or direct messages; because of this decentralized approach, many orders are lost or delayed.

Second, without the means to properly track transactions and manage teams, product is misplaced, cash disappears, faulty products go unreturned, and business is lost. It’s not uncommon even for highly profitable businesses to report consistent shrinkage figures of $30-40 thousand per quarter. Or higher.

Not only does CannTrade provide an efficient way to order and reorder products online, the platform supplies powerful ways to track and manage orders and teams. The order process is centralized, inventory is controlled, and businesses have a secure solution to manage their entire wholesale process. The CannTrade platform is FREE to use for cannabis retail businesses, so dispensaries can claim their account and utilize the full feature set without paying a dime.

Growing cannabis brands struggle to adopt CRM solutions that are not tailored for their industry. Most CRM’s are based around email communication and designed for sales reps that spend ample time in front of their computers. This is not how the cannabis industry works. In cannabis, email is one of the least frequently used methods of communication, and reps are on the move, tethered to their phones. Most are rarely, if ever, behind a computer screen.

CannTrade’s CRM is built specifically for the cannabis industry and designed for reps that are mobile, in and out of warehouses, dispensaries, and grows, and often behind the wheel. The streamlined functionality is intuitive and easy to learn, and is uniquely tied directly into inventory and the marketplace, so purchases, orders, account and client management, and reports are all in one place. Our CRM makes the lives of reps easier, saves them time, and makes them more effective at their job. On top of this, sales and account data provides sales managers and administrators the reports they need to make educated business decisions.

But the consensus on the largest problem facing the cannabis industry is the lack of banking and the inability for businesses to transact using digital payments. This problem is one that CannTrade would love to tackle for our growing list of clients, but is one we are not equipped to handle on our own.

Over the last several months, we have met with over 20 businesses claiming to have a solution to bring cashless payments to cannabis through the CannTrade platform, and by far, 36 + Dash have the most compelling product, team, and roadmap. Together, they simply had better answers to the barrier of entry and barrier of use questions that we presented, than anyone else. And they also had a timeline that was further along. We believe, that together, we can make a big splash to everyone’s benefit.

Partnership with Alt Thirty Six

CannTrade has partnered closely with Alt Thirty Six to design the roadmap and begin the groundwork to ensure the cannabis industry adopts DASH as its currency of choice.

For those that are not familiar, Alt Thirty Six is a financial technology company specializing in data intelligence and digital payments. They continue to work closely with the Dash Core team to develop and implement elegant solutions to the barriers of entry for the adoption of digital payments, specifically in the cannabis industry.

CannTrade’s close partnership with Alt Thirty Six will establish our platform as the first to offer a legitimate digital payment solution to cannabis businesses that, up to now, are still dealing exclusively in cash.

Not only do we improve the chances of capturing dispensaries and offer the CannTrade platform for FREE for cannabis retailers (Alt Thirty Six’s main vertical), CannTrade also delivers the keys to the rest of the cannabis business kingdom, expanding the target users beyond dispensaries and patients to now include genetics companies, cultivators, manufacturers, edible companies, brands, and distribution companies. With CannTrade’s ability to offer value to all businesses along the distribution chain, Dash + Alt Thirty Six can be part of a more holistic approach, where there are several possible entry-points to make inroads to adoption of Dash.

Being able to offer a digital payment solution and banking services, not only to dispensaries, but to the entire cannabis business community simultaneously, is a game changer.

We are convinced that the CannTrade +Alt Thirty Six co-developed platform using Dash will be the first and best solution to do just that.

Here are the links to Alt Thirty Six’s previous proposals:

Here is the link to Alt Thirty Six’s current proposals, which include:


Expanding With CannTrade

As mentioned above, with our value propositions and reach into the B2B realm, we aim to expand the reach of Alt Thirty Six’s solution from solely retail sales at dispensaries, to be able to capture all transactions from the beginning of the distribution chain to the end. There are millions of B2B wholesale and B2B retail transactions that happen every month in the state of California alone. Greater Los Angeles, CannTrade’s back yard and primary region of focus, accounted for nearly 1 billion in retail sales last year by itself.
 
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Key Market Facts and Figures:


  • The Cannabis industry is projected to reach 20+ billion in retail sales by 2021, and 50+ billion by 2026. Wholesale figures can be estimated to be approximately 60% of those figures.
  • California alone accounts for over 25% of national retail sales--and with recreational sales coming, this figure will grow significantly
  • The state expects there to be over 25,000 licenses in California in 2018 & beyond.
  • There are more than 1 million medical marijuana patients in CA + AZ combined (and California, now a recreationally legal state, will soon be bringing recreational retail sales onboard)
  • The CA recreational market is expected to be 5 billion dollars.

DASH Funding Details + Terms


We are asking the Dash network for 675 total DASH (value=$217,000 USD) in three goal based payments that will be adjusted according to the DASH/USD exchange rate at the time of the payment.


We understand that this is a higher amount than the community typically sees for an integration (though this is more than just an integration). The reason for this is that we are not a cryptocurrency company that is ready-built and is simply adding a new currency. We are a trading platform that, (due to the fact that no true solution exists for the industry we service) currently does not have the ability for any type of electronic payment to take place. This project’s ultimate goal is to supply one.

The integration will be a comprehensive process that requires planning and project management, extensive development involving re-engineering of several sections of the platform, including registration, marketplace, etc., and education/outreach to raise awareness of the solution & to effectively communicate to potential adopters that the solution is safe, easy, and worth it. The end result will be a fully functional transaction system built from the ground up with reporting and support.


The proposed funds will go towards supporting 3 full time developers, 1 project manager, and 2 QA engineers for 3 months. It will also help offset expenses that will be ongoing well beyond the 3 month tech integration, such as those associated with marketing, education, and customer support.


In order to ensure we deliver as promised, we have:
  • Entered a 36 month exclusivity agreement with the Dash Core team that stipulates that Dash will be the only digital currency to be used by and promoted through the CannTrade platform

  • Agreed that the Dash Core Group will hold the funds in escrow (in the business development fund) until we meet milestones enumerated in the Project Milestones below.
Use of Funds

  1. Support engineering and development integral to the integration with Alt Thirty Six,
  2. Offset operating expenses as the CannTrade team must be trained in selling and implementing the digital solution, and
  3. Offset marketing expenses going toward campaigns to raise awareness of the 36 +Dash solution available through CannTrade.
Every business that signs up with CannTrade will be funnelled to submit required information and be signed up to use DASH. Through CannTrade, the 36 + Dash solution will receive a lot of exposure in the cannabis industry. With the integration up and running, we will be selling the 36 + Dash payment solution through programming on CannabisRadio.com, Season 3 of the Marijuana Show (Karen Paull & Wendy Robins are on our Advisory Board), and in other channels and venues.


CannTrade will supply periodic updates to the Dash Network and to the Dash community on the same schedule as Alt Thirty Six (high level weekly update to the core team, and a monthly update to the community).


Upon the successful execution of this proposal, we have plans to submit additional proposals to drive Dash coin promotion and adoption.


Dash Contribution Total for the Project
  • Project Management and Roadmapping $10,000
  • Development Costs $150,000
    • Integration with 36 + Dash platform
    • Dash specific features, including registration/sign up requirements for Alt thirty Six + Dash platform & wallet solution
    • Database, API, & front-end development
  • Quality Assurance Testing & Beta Testing $40,000
  • Education & Marketing $17,000
    • Education & training of CannTrade team on 36 + Dash platform
    • All CannTrade clients will automatically be signed up to use Dash
    • Industry Trade Shows
      • SWCC Phoenix projects 7000+ attendees, including over 150 businesses & 1000+ vendor passes
      • 36 + Dash platform sponsored Product Launch Event
    • Media Exposure
      • CannabisRadio.com
      • The Marijuana Show (Season 3)
Total DASH Contribution for Project $217,000
(Approx 675 total DASH in 3 monthly payments)



Development Timeline: 3 months


The ultimate goal is to have the Dash-ready product up, running, and scalable by January 2018 to coincide with the activation of new regulations and licensure in California.
  1. Project Approval
  2. First Payment - 50%
  3. Mapping and modeling - 2 weeks
  4. Pre - Integration development - 3 weeks
  5. Second Payment - 25%
  6. Tech Integration begins (Primary Development) - 3 weeks
  7. Internal Testing - 2 weeks
  8. Third Payment - 05%
  9. Beta Testing & redevelopment - 3 weeks
  10. Push to production & Go live 2-3 days
Project Milestones:

The following is the schedule of actions and criteria to be delivered and assessed by the Dash Core team before a USD-equivalent payment is made. These criteria are in addition to weekly high level reports submitted to the Dash Core team and monthly reports submitted to the Dash community.

First Month Milestones (50% of total payment)
Mapping and modeling - 2 weeks​

  • Project scoping discussion with Alt36
  • Functional specification documents
Pre - Integration development - 3 weeks
  • Database updates for transaction support
  • API development for transaction support
  • UI development for transaction support

Second Month Milestones (25% of total payment)
Tech Integration begins (Primary Development) - 3 weeks​

  • Initial API calls between CannTrade & Alt36
  • Testing workflow for new DASH users

Internal Testing - 2 weeks
API sandbox testing between CannTrade and Alt36 (initial fake transactions)
UI/UX refinement
Bug fixing
Final Month Milestones (25% of total payment)

Beta Testing & redevelopment - 3 weeks​

  • Staging environment testing & bug bash
  • Bug fixing and UI tweaks

Push to production & Go Live 2-3 days
  • Deployment to production systems
  • Testing live environment
What’s Next


Upon successful completion of this project, CannTrade plans to submit additional proposals to drive DASH adoption. We have several established and developing partnerships that will increase the value of the overall project and relationship.

Further Plans include:

  • Sponsoring CannTrade B2B and B2C trade shows & events where every business that attends the event is required to be registered and legally verified on CannTrade. These events will be sponsored and Co-Branded as Dash events, and vendors and guests will be heavily incentivized to use DASH coins for any and all transactions.
  • Program to further incentivize adoption of DASH by CannTrade clients (new and existing), including DASH coin giveaways, contests, etc.
  • Direct integrations with additional software companies, such as POS systems, Seed to Sale tracking software platforms, Dispensary customer retention software, B2C Online ordering platforms, etc.
Relevant Partnerships and Associations:
  • Alt Thirty Six
  • CannabisRadio.com
  • Highlanders Distribution
  • Plant 2 Products Inc
  • MITA Arizona
  • UCBA (California)
  • Yobi
Thank you for reading and considering this project. We eagerly anticipate your questions and look forward to answering them honestly, promptly, and to the best of our ability. Feel free to learn a bit more about the founders below. Thanks again!

~Adam


CannTrade Co-founders:

Mark Restelli - CEO


Mark is a former professional football player who sustained a career ending foot injury while playing for the Miami Dolphins. It took a total of 4 surgeries over a 3 year period to get his foot back into functional shape. Realizing cannabis was the only medication that could safely relieve the pain from 20 years of football injuries, he dove headlong into the cannabis industry at the close of his professional athletic career. He soon discovered that cannabis would be his lifelong passion.

Mark earned a degree in Agricultural Business with a minor in Viticulture from California Polytechnic State University. He worked in the wine industry during his 4-year professional football career and was responsible for the creation of his own small production distribution company called Glasshouse Wines. After leaving the wine industry and retiring from football, Mark spent the last 5 years working in the medical cannabis industry. He began by growing cannabis in his garage and used his skills in design and marking to develop medical cannabis products for several shops and brands. In 2014, Mark founded Plant 2 Products, a collective in California that is licensed to cultivate, extract, manufacture, and distribute cannabis products. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Restelli https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-restelli/

Adam Holub (CISSP)- President


Adam has a composite professional background with roots in both technology and academia. His love of literature and education led him to teach eight years of high school English in New York City. Prior to teaching, Adam was the Senior Deployment Manager for Foundstone, Inc., a vulnerability management and strategic security professional services company acquired by McAfee in 2004. Adam managed the operational logistics for deployment of the Foundstone FS1000 Appliance at dozens of Fortune 100 clients, including large-scale security platform customization for the largest bank on the eastern seaboard, and spearheaded the manufacturing of the security appliance for the U.S. Department of Justice. Adam earned a BA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, completed advanced coursework at New York University, and has a Master’s in Education from Pace University. https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-holub-8500b82/


Drew Harmon - CTO

After earning his Bachelor’s of Science degree in computer science from Stonehill College in 2005, Drew joined QVidian (Formerly Kadient) building a distributed job processing architecture for an enterprise level CRM product. He took that expertise to Digital Results Group in 2009 where he was one of the lead developers on Ageon ISR, a cutting edge software product used to provide real time intelligence data from cameras, RADAR, and gunfire detection systems to US Army and Navy forces. Ageon ISR continues to be widely deployed throughout the world and has contributed to a significant reduction in US troop deaths by IEDs. https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewharmon/


Brian Holub - CIO

Brian began his career in the software security industry working for Foundstone, then Mcafee and Intel (both through acquisition). Over the course of 8 years he ascended to a lead development position serving clients from major financial institutions, government departments, military divisions, and the largest corporations in the world. In 2010 he decided to scratch his entrepreneurial itch and start WODTogether, Inc. an SaaS company focused on financial and business management for CrossFit affiliate facilities. WODTogether facilitates tens of millions of dollars of transactions for clients as well as tracking membership activities, all the way down to each gym clients health and fitness benchmarks.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bholub/
 
Hey Adam, thanks for the proposal, really exciting to see all these pushes for integration into the cannabis industry.

In your post you say that since launch you captured 320 verified businesses. How much money are those businesses actually spending on your platform?
 
Hey Adam, thanks for the proposal, really exciting to see all these pushes for integration into the cannabis industry.

In your post you say that since launch you captured 320 verified businesses. How much money are those businesses actually spending on your platform?

Hi Name3,

Good question :). Putting a marketplace together really involves building an ecosystem from scratch. You need enough sellers and products on the system to make it viable for buyers to come in, and enough buyers on the system to make the trading happen. We've learned from others' mistakes (even in this industry) that simply building a marketplace, even a high functioning, feature rich, sleek one (like ours is) is not enough. You need an angle. You need to have a plan and means to provide value to businesses and generate a base of users BEFORE you can expect mass adoption and two way transactions to take place on a meaningful scale.

We are in a controlled beta release period of our platform, where our plan and focus has been to provide value to sellers (cultivators, manufacturers, brands, etc.) through the CRM functionality, data, and lead generation tools. This is because when we make our wide push to retailers (and other buyers) in late 2017 and into 2018, we want to ensure that the marketplace is vibrant and stocked with brands and products from day one. Our approach has proved successful thus far, as over 75% of the businesses we've captured are brands/sellers.

This is not to say we don't have buyers on the system. We have a small number of them (it bares repeating that CannTrade is free for retailers, which will remove one major barrier of adoption). And while two way transactions have been limited in number (we've just begun starting in June) with one, then a handful, then dozens (per month), we're showing good growth, and we project and anticipate exponential adoption in the near term for a number of reasons:

1. Our product is maturing and beginning to distinguish itself in the industry. Our plan of attack, so to speak, is fairly unique, and the reception has been strong and getting stronger
2. The industry is becoming more regulated. Especially with a focus out here in CA, where the new regulations around state licensing set to be enacted on 1/1/18. Additional regulation, and adoption of more traditional business practices will help normalize online transactions and push for solutions, both technology oriented and otherwise, to make business practices more efficient (as CannTrade does).
3. We plan--with this project--to be the first platform to offer a true solution to the electronic payment problem facing the industry. Right now, all transactions happening through the platform are really Cash on Delivery transactions that take place between the buying and selling parties, and in come cases, involve a 3rd party transport/security company--especially for larger transactions (we are proud to say that the largest transaction facilitated through the CannTrade platform thus far was just under $500,000.00 -- some of these wholesale transactions can be quite large, which you can see the problem and expense involved when being forced to deal in cash)

Designing this solution with Dash and Alt 36 is a key ingredient to help businesses take the cash out of the transactions and will be huge in distinguishing our platform further, because only then will we truly be able to claim that any funds are actually moving through our platform. Once the method is proven, that will really resonate within the industry.
 
can you explain how this works with Alt36 ? i thought they were doing what you claim to be doing , sorry about the ignorance
 
Can somebody of the Core team please respond, Is this all legit including this part ?:

CannTrade has signed an exclusivity agreement with the Dash Core team to ensure Dash is the only digital currency available on the CannTrade platform for a 36 month time period. Additionally, as part of the agreement, the Dash Core Group will hold the funds in escrow (in the business development fund) until specific project milestones (outlined later in this document) are met.
 
Hey everyone,

Below is a link to the pre-proposal for the HWY Brand launch road trip. This is one several major brands that are using CannTrade and onboard with utilizing Dash coin as soon as possible to handle their wholesale transactions. HWY Brand is licensed to cultivate, manufacture, and distribute cannabis products in the state of California. Please check out the road trip and we look forward to answering any questions.

https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/pre-proposal-hwy-brand-road-trip.18124/
 
On boarding your clients to use Dash is a great win and complimentary to ALT36. Yes votes from me looking forward to voting it up.
 
can you explain how this works with Alt36 ? i thought they were doing what you claim to be doing , sorry about the ignorance
Hi! I'm sorry that you never received a response---once i submitted the actual proposal and began answering questions on that forum, I lost track of this pre-proposal thread. But in the hope that "better late than never" may apply here, Alt 36 is the payment platform that is integrating with our company, CannTrade, which is a B2B platform for wholesale cannabis transactions + a CRM for Cannabis businesses. Essentially, by integrating with ALT 36's product, we will be able to offer cannabis businesses, from cultivators to manufacturers to distributors to dispensaries, to be able to transact in DASH instead of cash.
 
Hi! I'm sorry that you never received a response---once i submitted the actual proposal and began answering questions on that forum, I lost track of this pre-proposal thread. But in the hope that "better late than never" may apply here, Alt 36 is the payment platform that is integrating with our company, CannTrade, which is a B2B platform for wholesale cannabis transactions + a CRM for Cannabis businesses. Essentially, by integrating with ALT 36's product, we will be able to offer cannabis businesses, from cultivators to manufacturers to distributors to dispensaries, to be able to transact in DASH instead of cash.
Thanks for that , hope everythings going great , any dateline when you will be fully integrated with Alt 36 ??
 
This is definitely one of the smartest moves for Dash. I know there are other cryptocurrencies out there targeting the same market but it seems to me that Dash is way ahead of the game thanks to this partnership.
 
Are there further updates on this proposal past the October one?
Hi There,

Thanks for your question -- this should have been updated here in the first place, so I apologize for that oversight.

All the preliminary documentation has been completed, but the integration has been slightly delayed. The Alt36 sandbox testing environment was not finalized as quickly as we initially thought. Alt Thirty Six has moved into production with Product36 and is now capable of running live transactions, and according to our meetings this week with the Alt 36 team, the integration environment will be good to go the 18th of this month (6 days from today). That will allow the heavy lifting of the integration to commence. We expect everything to run smoothly, and both dev teams have been prepped, with ample resources available to move quickly. We expect the integration to be done and on to the final testing phases by the end of February, and to release live beginning to mid-March.

Best,

Adam
 
Hi All,

I know it has been quite a while. Our integration with Alt36 was delayed for a time while integration environments were completed. It took longer than expected, but over the course of the work, some good discoveries were made, and ultimately, the integration and products will be better for it.

I'm happy to announce that the integration development has resumed as of this week, and that good progress has been made.

Authentication has been established, and we have moved on to the first API call, which will allow CannTrade clients to quickly and easily register as a merchant on the Alt36 platform. UI work is upcoming, which will present users in CannTrade the opportunity to "Accept DASH" as a payment method. That will present the registration form with all fields required by Alt36, pre-filled with as much data as we have available. Upon submission, the CannTrade API will call out to the Alt36 API to create the merchant account.

So far the integration has gone fairly smoothly.

By the time of the next monthly update, at the end of April, I anticipate we will be finishing up the integration and moving on to the testing phase.

Thanks!
 
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