One problem in the cannabis industry has been the issue of payment processing with many dispensaries being forced to deal with cash as many bank accounts and payment processors refuse service to cannabis companies due to marijuana’s legal status.
In response, blockchain-backed cryptocurrencies have been developed to help solve these problems and while major tokens such as bitcoin have been used, one company has created a unique blockchain-enabled payment processor and point-of-sale system specifically for businesses in the cannabis industry.
POSaBIT has been offering this solution to the market and has announced it will begin trading on the Canadian Stock Exchange (CSE).
“This is a significant achievement for POSaBIT and we are proud to make this important transition from the private to the public markets. The past year has been an exciting one for the company, marked by a series of milestones. We continued to expand geographically in the California, Colorado and Washington markets, successfully completed the acquisition of DoubleBeam, and rolled-out a fully-integrated POS and payments platform that fulfills an unmet need in the cannabis industry,” said POSaBIT co-founder and CEO Ryan Hamlin. “Our service is now in use at over 120 cannabis merchants across various US states. We are pleased with our traction in the market, as demonstrated by our strong year-to-date growth, and are very encouraged by the continued momentum we saw as we closed out 2018.”
The company still is quite small, generating $1.39 million in revenue for the nine months ending on Sept 30, 2018, which his a 266 percent increase in comparison to the previous year.
POSaBIT also has operations in four American states, California, Nevada, Oklahoma, and Colorado. The new PoS system would let companies sell and accept both Litecoin and Bitcoin for transactions, as well as help solve card compliance problems for debit card transactions.
“We believe our all-in-one payment and POS solution provides a unique and compelling offering that enables cash-only businesses, like those typical to the cannabis industry, to provide their consumers with an alternative to cash, while still satisfying retail customer experience expectations,” Hamlin added. “We believe the cannabis industry represents a large and growing opportunity for our offerings. With the successful completion of our listing on the CSE, we are pleased to have the additional capital needed to accelerate our growth in this rapidly expanding market. Our solution fills an unmet need, enables merchants to remain compliant in a highly regulated industry, and drives sales. We think this is a winning combination that will fuel our growth in 2019.”
Federal restrictions in the U.S. have almost tonally prevented the use of cards and digital payments for processing cannabis. Cryptocurrency is seen as one of the potential solutions to this problem as some markets in the U.S. already begin experimenting with this solution.
In California, the world’s largest supplier of cannabis and pioneer in the legal pot industry has seen two members of the state assembly proposing a bill that would let cannabis businesses pay their city and state taxes in stablecoins – cryptocurrencies whose value is tied to traditional currencies, assets, or other commodities. Regardless, crypto-powered retail solutions will be key for the cannabis industry going forward, something that POSaBIT is well positioned to provide.
