Welcome back for another interview on this blog! This time I have had the pleasure to talk to Gabriel Allred, co-founder of TOKES, the first cryptocurrency designed to support cannabis legalization. Gabriel Allred is pursuing a PhD in cognitive science at the University of Nevada. Enjoy the read!
Q: What is the background of the founders of TOKES and how did you come up with the idea of a cryptocurrency specific to the cannabis market?
A: Michael’s background is conventional finance, more specifically; professional wealth management. He keeps tabs on emerging trends in financial technology, so naturally cryptocurrency was on his radar, and he’s been working in the cryptospace for 4 years now. My background is a bit all over the place, I’m a researcher by training (and currently
finishing a PhD in experimental psychology, my dissertation work is on behavioral economics), however I have a background in data sciences, inferential statistics, and have conducted applied research in multiple industries. Mike and I are both cannabis advocates, one day during a conversation the light bulb turned on, and we realized what an obvious
use case the cannabis industry is for cryptocurrency adoption. Most dispensaries are still operating purely in cash due to the federal illegality of cannabis, and the looming possibility of the federal government seizing your funds if you try and bank cannabis income.
Q: On this interview, co-founder Michael Wagner states, to summarise, that you chose the Waves blockchain for many features which are unique to the token creation chains. Can you tell us which features made you prefer their blockchain, and why are you heavily promoting the asset pegging and the transaction anonymity that comes with TOKES?
A: Waves was an obvious choice to us (Ethereum was a close second), as we felt they were prioritizing the development of features that would be of the most use to our user base, particularly; fiat gateways, a native mobile app, decentralized market… As of today, Waves has an app in both the iOS store and via Google, a feat not many “alternative” cryptocurrencies have achieved due to Apple’s strict policies about the types of cryptocurrency applications they’ll approve. By proxy, you can
now transact Tokes via iOS, which is not something you can do easily with most other alts via iPhone.
The asset pegging we are heavily promoting because of its value to a dispensary. If we tell a client we can move their assets to the blockchain, it solves the security issue of storing cash reserves, however now they are exposed to the potential volatility of a cryptocurrency. Most businesses do not want that type of exposure, so asset pegging is an obvious solution.
Anonymity is more for the end user. Keep in mind, there are strict compliance standards state to state regarding how dispensaries must track their sales for accounting and taxation. So, while there is transparency within a blockchain ledger, the average user might not want their purchase history to be public, and for good reason, cannabis is still very much considered a vice and stigmatized. It’s anonymity for the consumer, compliance and better accounting for the dispensary.
Gabriel Allred, co-founder of TOKES
Q: On your white paper, it is mentioned that you are starting your pilot program from Nevada. To those who are not aware of the legal situation, recreational and medical cannabis are legal on a state level but illegal on a federal level. What are the measures you are undertaking to ensure that using TOKES will prevent an user from having problems with the law?
A: Compliance is everything. Nevada will be the testing ground, as we obviously have feet on the ground here, and our state has some of the more meticulous state compliance and regulatory laws for cannabis. We consult regularly with legal counsel and essentially ensure that we are meeting the state regulatory standards at each step of the way. Much of this is still uncharted territory, so we have to tread lightly as we go.
Q: What was the reaction of the local cannabis businesses, by which I mean dispensaries, cultivators and producers, when you first proposed to them the idea of TOKES?
A: Most of it has been positive. For those that have heard of bitcoin or cryptocurrency, it’s a no brainer, and they’re usually on board with the idea. Those unfamiliar however seem to scratch their heads a bit about the notion of trusting a non-banking entity to digitally secure your assets. We recently announced an upcoming partnership with Herbology Tours in Las Vegas, where participants on their tours will receive some TOKES to spend at dispensary stops on the route. The dispensaries partnered with the tour company were intrigued by the idea, and are quite willing to let us utilize their businesses as test cases
for TOKES at point of sale systems.
TOKES' road map
Q: On TOKES' Twitter account, a road map of the future steps you will undertake to the end of 2018 was published. As you are heading the TOKES platform development, how are the mobile app and the pilot program coming along? Is there a fixed date for their launch?
A: The pilot program is in the works, as part of this pilot is being rolled out via dispensary tours, and we give the tour participants a sum of TOKES to spend on the tour. The mobile app is actually pretty close, I posted a video of a working demo of the app on iPhone in our Slack a couple weeks ago. We have however moved the app development to the back burner for the time being. For now, users can transact TOKES via the Waves mobile wallet, which is how the tour goers will be transacting. We are working on announcing a larger partnership in the coming weeks, and after that is formalized and public we will push forward on the final mobile app development.
Q: The last step of the "tech stack" part of the road map is the expansion of TOKES to a broader North American (USA and Canada) market. Are you envisaging to expand also to other cannabis-friendly countries around the world? The two countries I am thinking of, while asking this, are Uruguay and the Netherlands.
A: Yes, that’s the goal. We’ve actually received some inquiries from a couple of dispensaries in the Netherlands. At present we want to make sure all aspects of our tech stack are functional and fine-tuned before we start porting the tech elsewhere. That looks to be a year (or two) down the road as of now before we start looking to roll it out in other countries. Ultimately the sky is the limit as we see many countries moving to decriminalize.
Michael Wagner, co-founder of TOKES