- New cryptocurrency app allows cannabis dispensaries to accept electronic bitcoin payments
- Legal marijuana market predicted to hit $24.5 billion in North America by 2021
- Convergence of cryptocurrency and cannabis industry meet in SingleSeed subsidiary
Publicly traded holding company SinglePoint, Inc. (OTC: SING) and its innovative SingleSeed app – designed to allow cannabis dispensaries and customers to exchange funds using debit and credit cards via the vehicle of bitcoin – is singled out in a CNBC article highlighting the industry’s ongoing need for an alternative banking solution (http://cnw.fm/3bA32).
Three years ago, SinglePoint placed terminals in medical marijuana dispensaries, so consumers could use a debit card to make purchases. The convenient terminals “were going great,” SinglePoint CEO Wil Ralston states. “Then overnight the banks shut them all down. There were no guidelines about how banks were supposed to interact with the cannabis industry. They didn’t want to risk it.”
It was obvious banks didn’t want to handle legal marijuana transactions, Ralston notes, which meant cannabis retailers and consumers were forced to bring cash to the table, and it was apparent that an alternative payment form was desperately needed. The addition of the SingleSeed app to the cannabis market could solve the industry’s glaring “unbankable” problem, since dispensaries and consumers alike could use the app to accept and make purchases using bitcoin.
Soft launched in mid-November with an emphasis on the marijuana industry, the SingleSeed app can also be utilized by any business (http://cnw.fm/XyTE4). Ralston notes that 14 percent of the nation’s population doesn’t have access to a traditional banking system either because they don’t have credit or are involved in a high-risk business.
“Blockchain is applicable to any industry,” Ralston said. “We’re letting consumers know, this is just an additional way to pay.”
Legal marijuana sales are on track to hit $9.7 billion in North America by the end of 2017, a 33 percent increase over 2016, with industry analysts predicting that the market could fetch upward of $24.5 billion in sales by 2021, according to an article in Business Insider (http://cnw.fm/G6fKK). Marijuana is legal in some form in 29 states and the District of Columbia, while Canada is poised to make the highly regulated plant legal for nationwide adult-use sales by July 2018. Cannabis remains illegal on the federal level in the United States.
SingleSeed is fully KYC-AML compliant and can be used by any business. For marijuana vendors specifically, it can be utilized within any of the states where marijuana currently has a legal status. It is designed as a payment service that enables instant bitcoin-powered purchases using credit and debit cards. Through a user-friendly signup form and ID verification, customers can set up accounts online prior to visiting a cannabis merchant, or they can sign up in just seconds at the point of sale (http://cnw.fm/myB7T).
The cannabis industry could be one of the first to fully blend cryptocurrencies into its day-to-day business operations. For those seeking alternative forms of payment, SinglePoint’s unique SingleSeed app offers an intriguing option.
For more information, visit the company’s website at www.SinglePoint.com
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SinglePointMobile
On Twitter: https://twitter.com/_Singlepoint_
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