Bitcoins blockchain sparked the idea for cannabis companies to use the concept for the plant’s marketplace since many banks refuse to do business cannabis companies.Here is the background on the blockchain.
The blockchain was invented by an individual or group of people named Satoshi Nakamoto. It’s a decentralized public ledger that keeps track of cryptocurrency transactions.As an alternative option to traditional private banking,it provides the unique solution that the cannabis world was looking for. Each record in the chain is called a block,and it contains a history of all of the previous blocks.
Since its decentralized, users validate new transactions in the blockchain. Each new transaction represents a block. After its verified, the transaction is publicly recorded and then added to the blockchain. When its part of the block chain other users relay and verify the transaction. The process of adding a block to the block chain is called mining.
The primary reason that is hasn’t become a mainstream payment network is because the virtual Bitcoin’s currency is too unstable. However, companies like IBM realize that it can be used for other applications, mainly the cannabis industry.
The Perfect Cannabis Solution?
The blockchain is secure,and its transparency benefits the cannabis industry because it’s an immediate solution and is an improved way to track inventory in the marketplace. This novel idea comes at a time when the banking industry is shutting down cannabis companies’ ability to use their institutions for any business activities relating to cannabis and freezing their funds.
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
IBM experimented with this technology with companies like Walmart successfully. Walmart used it for their grocery supply chain. Tracking shipments reduced from six days to just two seconds. The same blockchain will be utilized to track all of their global grocery supplies including expiration dates on food and safety inspections.
All of this was done using the Hyperledger that IBM created with other business leaders. It’s specifically designed for enterprise customers. Sophisticated mechanisms safeguard the network and ledger from malicious network affiliates.
A System Specific for Cannabis
For the cannabis industry, IBM wants to build private blockchains like supply partners or banks that work together,so there is no need to launch malicious attacks. The Hyperledger mechanisms don’t use as many resources and allow for the quicker, predictable clearance of mechanisms.
IBM realized that there was a void in the financial sector of the cannabis industry that blockchain could provide a solution for. The blockchain can assist with asset exchanges yet still offer privacy and protection from fraud.. The goal is for companies to work together in a shared marketplace, but that they manage their own copy of a ledger shared by all.
On May 29, 2018, BLOCK strain Technology Corp. announced the creation of a software company that is sensitive to the unique needs of the cannabis industry since its an industry like no other. They helped create and launch the “first integrated blockchain platform that registers and tracks intellectual property for the cannabis sector.” It will also automate the testing process making that system more efficient. It’s a fantastic system that offers a cannabis licensing and genetic registration platform to archive data and ensures the safety of the vast amounts of cannabis information all over the world.
IBM was right on track with their part in the creation of such an innovative technology based on the fundamentals of the decentralized Bitcoin blockchain database. It may represent the financial future of the cannabis industry.