{"id":15415,"date":"2017-10-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-10-21T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2019.dash.org\/2017\/10\/22\/digital-currency-looks-to-solve-cannabis-industrys-cash-problem\/"},"modified":"2021-09-18T11:39:23","modified_gmt":"2021-09-18T11:39:23","slug":"cannabis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dash.org\/news\/cannabis\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital Currency Looks to Solve Cannabis Industry\u2019s Cash Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Digital currencies may solve some the legal cannabis industry\u2019s woes by becoming an alternative to cash payments. Despite recent state-level ballot initiatives across the US that legalizes marijuana in one form or another, the drug still remains illegal at the federal level. While it\u2019s unlikely the feds are going to go after legal cannabis dispensaries any time soon, the legal murkiness does create one serious problem.<\/p>\n

Cash-only<\/h2>\n

Banks won\u2019t deal with cannabis dispensaries.<\/p>\n

Consider the ramifications. No banking means no payment processing, which means customers can\u2019t use credit or debit cards to make purchases.\u00a0According to a 2016 survey<\/a>, 75 percent of customers prefer to pay with credit or debit cards, with only 11 percent preferring to pay with cash.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, dispensaries can\u2019t give customers what they want \u2013\u00a0payment methods other than cash<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 because banks won\u2019t do business with them. Consequently, the customer is inconvenienced and the merchant loses potential sales.<\/p>\n

A lack of banking causes even more serious problems. Since the industry is forced to accept only cash for payments, marijuana dispensaries\u00a0are an excellent target for robbers and thieves<\/a>\u00a0due to the large amount of cash they keep on premises.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s still a larger problem than that, which is perhaps the biggest of all: dispensaries have great difficulty paying their expenses. Utilities, tax assessors and vendors would much rather not be paid in cash, and some vendors may not even accept cash payments.<\/p>\n

The cost of protecting large sums of cash is prohibitive. The need for armored cars, safes and guards depletes the bottom line. It\u2019s been estimated that cash handling expenses can amount to\u00a010-15 percent of sales<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Changes are coming<\/h2>\n

Seeing an opportunity to gain access to a $6.7 bln market, the digital currency Dash partnered with Alt Thirty Six in April 2017. The Dash network,\u00a0through its decentralized self-funding mechanism<\/a>, is paying the company $496,000 to integrate Dash as a payment option in the cannabis industry\u2019s point of sale (POS) systems. The vendor also has skin in the game, having spent nearly $700,000 of their own money developing the POS platform.<\/p>\n

As part of this arrangement, Dash will be the only digital currency offered by the point of sale platform. According to the budget proposal submitted to the Dash network:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have three major verticals identified and solidified reseller partnerships that will adopt the Alt Thirty Six + Dash payment solutions:<\/p>\n