While Canada’s federal government may be preparing to legalize the sale and use of cannabis throughout the country, dispensaries around the world still face challenges when conducting everyday business practices as simple as advertising their products, banking or even accepting credit card payments. Due to uneven regulations across different jurisdictions, point-of-sale (POS) transactions continue to be a conundrum for the industry. Canadian-based CannaSOS is poised to put an end to these obstacles through their PerksCoin (PCT) ICO, which is active now until the end of February.
The company’s Co-Founder, Daniel Cheine, argues that the security of blockchain technology will solve the practical problems facing today’s cannabis transactions. “Imagine, right now, you’re in Brazil and you go and do business with a guy that’s in Uruguay. That guy can rip you off, take your money and not give you the product,” says Cheine. “But with Secure Sale, you pay the supplier an amount of money and the PerksCoin Transaction Platform holds it until that supplier sends the product to you. In two days, when you’ve confirmed receipt of the product and that everything is fine, then the cryptocurrency goes to that supplier. If this is not the case, then you return the package and receive your cryptocurrency (or fiat currency) back.”
CannaSOS’ PCT will also enable corporate settlements, be used as payment to facilitate advertising by cannabis industry companies, and serve as the means of payment in online stores, all while avoiding transaction fees. “Think of it as Bitcoin but with less volatility, offering a Secure Sale service like Seller Protection on PayPal, with transaction processing only taking a couple of seconds, with a universal wallet that will hold all major crypto and fiat currencies, and with a recoverable wallet in case of theft, ” says Cheine.
The cannabis-focused CannaSOS platform was launched in 2014 with the aim to be the world’s foremost peer-to-peer cannabis resource and social space that connects experts, doctors, dispensaries, researchers, and aficionados worldwide. CannaSOS hosts 1,020 business pages and claims over 317,000 registered purchasers, while 2.5 million people per year regularly visit the site. The well-established platform already uses their PerksCoins as part of their loyalty program that rewards subscribers who produce quality content for sharing among users. The founders quickly recognized, though, that offering the tokens for public sale would allow them to push for external use outside of the CannaSOS platform.
The company even aims to eventually look at creating strategic partnerships with organizations beyond the cannabis industry, and Daniel Cheine has big ambitions. “We see PerksCoin being in the top 10 cryptocurrencies in the next five years,” he says. Attaining that goal, of course, will depend on the number of strategic partnerships CannaSOS can forge with companies with large client bases. Cheine believes their targets are achievable. “One of our partners is planning on having 200,000 locations using their POS by 2020, and that’s around 100 million users. That’s 100 million possible PerksCoin users,” he says. He also points out that partner businesses will be able to offer PerksCoin as rewards to their own clients, further expanding PCT use. Cheine thinks the PCT could become so popular, it might even be used in restaurants, gas stations, cafes and possibly large-scale retailers.
The PCT ICO was launched last November and to date has sold well over 16.4 million tokens, and the company is currently valued at $20,616,116.26 USD. The company has been assisted and advised throughout their ICO by ICOBox, the leading provider of SaaS ICO solutions. ICOBox Co-Founder Nick Evdokimov says “CannaSOS recognized how blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies can solve the unique obstacles faced by their industry, and they have set about developing an exceptional project that will improve the experience of their clients and community.”
The PerksCoin Token sale continues until February 28, 2018, and the PCT is offered at a nominal price of $0.80. Discounts as high as 15% off are available through the website until February 19. For more information, visit the CannaSOS crowdsale site at http://www.cannasos.com/crowdsale-ico