Political representatives in Washington State Senate have recently introduced SB 5264, a new bill which is looking to amend currently existing rules surrounding the sale and exchange of cannabis in the market.
The new rules propose that no cannabis shops in the area be allowed to purchase goods by using any digital currency, nor would they be able to accept cryptocurrency payments of any kind. The bill also details a definition of virtual currency and details the worry surrounding the lack of governing there is surrounding the cryptocurrency transfers.
Under the new proposal, any cannabis producer, processor, or retail outlet, would be prohibited from accepting cryptocurrency for any cannabis purchase.
There are some in the Washington area who have already embraced currencies like bitcoin in order to pay for goods and run their business etc, and if this new bill passes then they'll be forced to make adjustments. Because cannabis is still federally prohibited, though embraced to a certain extent in some states, the stigma prevents banks and other businesses from getting involved professionally.
Most financial providers are still not going to take the risk of getting involved and so that is why many dispensaries currently run in a cash-only setting. But keeping those cannabis dispensaries cash only is going to make them an easy target. That is why the industry really would benefit from cryptocurrency in affording people a way to go about making their exchanges in a peaceful way with one another.
Next Up For SB 5264: public hearing that's scheduled in the Senate Committee on Commerce for Jan 25th.
Pics:
Pixabay
Sources:
http://www.coindesk.com/washington-lawmakers-are-trying-to-keep-bitcoin-out-of-pot-shops/
https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/legal-marijuana-industry-needs-bitcoin-badly/
https://www.paymentssource.com/news/how-the-payments-industry-came-to-accept-legal-marijuana
@smooth damn, the statists burn the midnight oil to come up with this shite. If they spent half the effort on poverty or mental health care...
If these filthy tyrants tried to help the poor, they'd probably force them into concentration camps or jails and call it free housing.
If those filthy tyrants tried to help the mentally ill, they'd have us and all our children on drugs, to force happiness upon us while we do our corporate jobs, and our children get brainwashed.
Of course, they already do this, so yeah...
Silly statism.
Yes! LOL at the statists
I hate people interfering in the free markets. If entrepreneurs want to accept crypto, let them. It's their weed.
I hope it backfires on their asses.
You are free...just don't try to exercise any freedoms or we'll punish you! BTW- enjoy your slavery, the government loves a smiling slave!
The supporters of SB 5264 are ignorant and short-sighted, and their bill will only serve to highlight BTC as a viable solution to the problems the industry has engaging in the fiat banking system. Growing adoption of BTC is what happens when government busy-bodies declare war on cash and regulators grant lucrative banking licenses under the condition that banks spy on their customers. The bureaucrats and legislators are clueless.
Trying to make it easier on themselves to track users!
There is no such thing as bad publicity, this will only serve to further entrench the use of BTC and other cryptos by this growing market.
There would be absolutely NOTHING stopping me from loading up a bitpay card and using that. Nothing. So this isn't even about bitcoin, this is about control. And I agree that it will backfire, as it will encourage the free market to find a solution that skirts that dumb proposed law.
I hope this passes and highlights BTC as a completely viable solution that can hardly be impacted by governments (on/off ramps to fiat excluded), as evidenced by the govt's attempt to ban it for these type of transactions.
This also begs the question: How do they plan to enforce it? It's pretty much a cash dominated industry still...
There is, if the bank that issues the bitpay-branded card (it is not bitpay itself) refuses to process these transactions.
Hmmm, how about if the purchase is listed as "donation"... kind of analogous to how porn companies show up as "innocuous inc" on your statements?
That's between the shop and their merchant bank (which they may not even be able to get at all, which is one of the reasons these businesses often use cash). It may or may not fly, but the point being that ultimately the authority is given to a bank. By using cryptocurrency it removes banks from the equation, and removes the need for their approval. This is a very real difference between actually using cryptocurrency and using something like a bitpay card.
Thanks for helping me see this issue more clearly. Can you see any way for BTC to sidestep this? Or is this a "wait for a free market response to a need" kind of situation? Because I have been very much hoping that there would be a crypto-mj marriage
Using BTC or other crypto directly (not via a bank card) is the way to sidestep it. I'd suggest opposing this law and also encouraging any shops you patronize to accept BTC or other crypto (and when they do, use crypto to pay). As I understand it there are a few here and there already doing it, but it hasn't caught on in big way yet.
What a stupid bill.
Another law that the free market will ignore..
They don't let banks accept weed money, and then when weed money finds a way into safety they want to take that too?
Yeah. They are protecting their interests. It is not a free world when these are the kinds of bills being passed and focused on. I am not surprised though. I guess their desensitization is working on me. One day this will all change, but old people cant accept change, so we build our own world from ground up while theirs collapses on itself.
moral of the story.... sell your Potcoin now
Nice post, and a good summary of the situation, one has to ask why buying cannabis with cryptocurrency is inherently different from buying it for cash.
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ColdMonkey mines Gridcoin through generating voluntary BOINC computations for science...
Great post. Very interesting. upvoted
This could have a huge impact on pot coin. This is there target market. Fuck the state go rogue then.
Yes, this is all to crazy. I've been following DopeCoinGold crypto which just re-branded and launched.
How could they possibly stop this? Are they going to arrest people? Crypto is freedom.
My guess would be penalties on any business that accepted bitcoin.
Well, that's just retarded.
Wow, that is crazy.
Well I do not care what law they create for hemp (Same cannabis just without the attack vector THC), we at https://hempsweet.net will continue to accept STEEM for all of our products. We ship to all 50 states and the world.
Deregulate that town!