What is Cannabis Coin?
Cannabis Coin is a decentralized and open-source cryptocurrency created in 2014. The coin was forked from Peercoin and Bitcoin by an anonymous person only referred to as DeltaNine or D9. The coin was created to provide a reliable payment solution for marijuana dispensaries, merchants, retailers, and users in the fast unfolding cannabis niche.
The coin is a proof of work cryptocurrency which means that it resembles Bitcoin and Peercoin in many aspects. For example, it operates as a decentralized network of nodes that help to govern the system. However, it differs significantly by adopting X11 hashing algorithm.
Note that though the coin was designed for the marijuana niche, it is also used for crypto-related payments just like Bitcoin or ETH. Here is a closer look at the performance of the coin in the market:
- The Cannabis Coin trading history
When Cannabis Coin was unveiled on 5th August 2018, its value was $0.00085. The value rose significantly to $0.05 by 23rd October 2018 before dropping to $0.003 in early January 2015. Between January 2015 and May 2017, the value of the coin ranged between $0.001 and $0.0075.
From June 2017, Cannabis Coin value started rising and hit an all-time high of $0.3 in January 2018. However, the positive show was short-lived. Immediately after hitting the highest mark of $0.3, the coin took a bearish trend that culminated to $0.005 on 25th December 2018.
Though 2018 was marked by a bearish trend, the show was not peculiar to Cannabis Coin only. Others including the top coins such as Bitcoin and Ethereum were also on a downtrend. As the marijuana niche continues expanding, the demand for the coin and its value are expected to take a bullish trend.
What is the problem that Cannabis Coin solves?
As the cannabis sector continues to expand, most of the systems appear less prepared to support its sale and related payments. Here are some of the problems that Cannabis Coin seeks to address:
- Lack of a supportive payment system for the emerging marijuana niche
In the past, cannabis was considered one of the top narcotics, and people were advised to stay away from it at all costs. But the narrative is changing. After the medicinal value of Cannabis was discovered, countries are changing their stance about marijuana. But others are now allowing it even for recreational purposes.
Some of the countries that have legalized marijuana include Canada and Uruguay that allow consumption and sale of both recreational and medical cannabis. In the US, ten states have legalized sale and consumption of marijuana. However, it remains illegal to use cannabis federally. Other jurisdictions that allow use of Marijuana include Belgium, Bolivia, Costa Rica, and Estonia.
Because most of the old systems were designed when marijuana was illegal, they rarely support marijuana even after its legalization. This is why Cannabis Coin was created.
- Imbalanced adoption of cryptocurrencies
Since 2009 when Satoshi Nakamoto launched Bitcoin, most of the newer coins are directed at other areas such as sending of value, gaming, and e-commerce sectors. The effect is poor adoption and use of crypto coins in emerging markets such as the marijuana niche.
The cannabis coin targets to help extend the adoption of crypto coins in the cannabis niche. It also seeks to facilitate faster growth of the cashless system in the market.
- The high cost of sending value using the traditional financial system
If you use traditional financial organizations such as credit cards or banks, the cost of sending value is very high. The organizations are created with the primary target of helping them optimize profitability.
All the services in the traditional systems are carefully priced to ensure that the organizations make high profits. From sending value to saving funds, the services are very expensive. The managements of such organizations have to charge high transaction fees to net high return for investors and meet expenses such as wages and rent.
- Lack of secrecy in the traditional finance systems
Though the marijuana niche is changing, many people are yet to accept it. For example, people who want to buy cannabis for recreational use might still be profiled by the community. But the traditional payment systems do not offer the cannabis users an anonymous platform because a lot of people can easily know about the order details.
If you make payment for a cannabis order through the banking system, cashiers and bank managers can easily see the details. Some institutions could even decline to process the order because it is associated with marijuana.
Cannabis coin seeks to change this model by providing the marijuana community with a completely anonymous system for running their transactions.
- Centralized mining
Many cryptocurrencies that were unveiled in the early years of the crypto niche used the proof of work protocol. However, the protocol emerged to be highly ineffective because of the ever-growing mining difficulty that required users to generate and use high computing power.
To make mining viable, the industry started generating Application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) that generate very high computing power. The main issue with ASICs is the associated costs of equipment. Because only a few people can afford the equipment, it implies that mining is centralized and the native coins could fall into the hands of the elite. It also raises the danger of 51% attack.
How does Cannabis Coin solve the problem?
From people who target to use marijuana for medical purposes to others interested in its recreational use, the missing link is the lack of a reliable and secure platform for payment. Here are some of the methods used to address the issues outlined above:
- Cannabis Coin system operates as a completely decentralized system
The main method used to address the above problems is decentralization of the payment system. When marijuana-related transaction in the Cannabis Coin system is initiated, it is picked by a system of nodes that help to confirm transactions and add new blocks into its public ledger.
Using a network of nodes implies that there are no centralized organizations such as banks that are involved. Therefore the transactions are faster and cheaper. In addition, they are also anonymous because all user details are fully encrypted. This implies that no one can easily know about the history of your transactions.
When miners follow back the users to check whether they have ample funds on their accounts, they can only know the content of the public address as opposed to details of the private keys. Because cryptocurrencies are not regulated, no entity including a court of law can order for the details of your crypto related operations.
- The use of X11 hashing algorithm
This is a proof of work hashing algorithm that was created by Evan Duffield and first implemented in Dark Coin that was later named Dash. X11 combines 11 hash functions that include Luffa, CubeHash, SHAvite-3, SIMD, ECHO, Skein, Keccak, JH, Grøstl, Blue Midnight Wish, and Blake.
The main advantage of X11 hashing is that it is ASIC resistant and more secure than Bitcoin. This means that you can easily mine the coins with standard devices such as GPU and CPU.
- Availability in multiple trading platforms
To make more people appreciate and adopt cryptocurrencies, Cannabis Coin development team ensured that it is available on multiple platforms. You can go for the version that supports Windows, iOS or Android platforms.
Whether you want to store or mine Cannabis Coins, it is possible to run the transactions right from your PC or GPU. Besides, you can store the coins on a mobile wallet in order to run the transactions even when away from the main computer.
What makes Cannabis Coin better than it’s competitors?
The crypto industry has become highly competitive because of the many coins joining the industry at a fast rate. Therefore, the Cannabis Coin development team had to craft a method of competing against these coins and the traditional financial organizations. Here are some of the things that make Cannabis better than competitors.
- The crypto coin is targeted at an area that is less explored
While more cryptocurrencies target the main financial lines of sending money, games and social media, the Cannabis Coin is projected at the less explored marijuana area. Though the marijuana niche is still small, more countries are legalizing cannabis and the market is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years. This is the reason many people are buying and holding the coin.
- The Cannabis Coin can serve all the purposes of other coins
One unique thing about Cannabis Coin is that though the primary aim is serving the marijuana niche, it can also be used for all other purposes like the common coins. For example, you can use the coin to send value just like Bitcoin or trade it in the markets such as Bittrex.
- Cannabis Coin presents a reliable way to trade with no fear of chargebacks
If you make an order for cannabis, some financial organizations that still believe it is bad could drop it. Besides, even some traders might be tempted to drop it unless you provide additional info on authorization to have cannabis.
However, Cannabis Coin allows users to operate anonymously. This means that you can place an order and get deliveries in total anonymity.
- Cannabis Coin allows users to mine with standard devices such as GPU and CPU
Unlike other coins such as Bitcoin that have suffered from the serious problem of centralized mining, Cannabis Coin allows users to mine with CPU and GPU. This makes it easy for more people to join the network, mine, own the native coins, and participate in the network governance.
- The Cannabis Coin community has been growing steadily
As a new market, the marijuana niche is expected to keep growing steadily. Both crypto experts and the community are expecting the value of Cannabis Coin to grow in the coming years. This makes it a good investment in the fast-evolving crypto niche.
It is important to note that though X11 hashing algorithm used to worked well as an ASIC resistant protocol, the technology is no longer effective. Newer ASIC miners that can mine even X11 based coins have been released into the market.
How can Cannabis Coin be categorized?
Cannabis Coin is a creative crypto that seeks to help take the blockchain technology to the emerging marijuana niche. As more countries legalize cannabis use, the demand for an anonymous and reliable payment system will become more crucial. This means that Cannabis Coin timely coin that could ultimately emerge as a favorite for many in the niche.
What is Cannabis Coin’s vision on security?
The Cannabis Coin’s vision on security is to become the most secure payment platform for the marijuana niche. The founder and the development team used the following strategies to keep the coin and its network safe:
- Use of X11 hashing algorithm.
- Advanced encryption.
- Progressive development that looks for gaps in the core code and seals them before they become security threats.
Examples of Cannabis Coin’s use cases/ applications
To win a bigger market for a cryptocurrency, the main target is ensuring the coin can be used for many applications. The following are the main use cases of Cannabis Coin.
- Cannabis Coin can be used to pay for marijuana in countries that have legalized it. You can order and pay for medical or recreational marijuana using Cannabis Coin.
- Like Bitcoin, Cannabis Coin can be traded in the markets that list it. These are exchanges that bring together crypto coins buyers and sellers in the market. Note that to trade in the crypto exchanges; you will need to start by joining the exchanges and verifying your account with government-issued documents.
- The Cannabis Coins can be used to send value across the globe on a peer2peer basis. Note that both the sender and recipient need to be on the same network for the transaction to be completed.
- Cannabis Coin can be used to pay for goods and services from stores that accept them. Even if a trader only accepts a different coin, it is still possible to make a purchase using the coin by first converting to the supported coin.
- You can use the Cannabis Coin to pay for government services in states that support cryptocurrencies. For example, the Singapore government indicates that there is no difference between paying for services with fiat or cryptos.