DMG Blockchain Solutions is turning to the technology to protect the industry
There’s no doubt that marijuana is grabbing hold of society. It’s impossible to read a newspaper without seeing a new article about legislative changes, new businesses entering the space or innovative advances on the plant’s benefits. Now, one company is looking to bring together the popular subject with another budding industry, the blockchain.
DMG Blockchain Solutions out of Canada, a company that initially was formed to mine cryptocurrency, announced last week that it is preparing to develop a global supply chain for the cannabis industry that harnesses the power of the blockchain. The idea is to provide validity of the source of the marijuana, which will ultimately help to appease regulators and protect consumers.
Dan Reitzik, the company’s CEO, recently participated in an interview with the cryptocurrency media outlet ETHNews, in which he said, “Everybody talks about blockchain this and blockchain that and how it is going to revolutionize all sorts of industries. I think it might, eventually, but it is going to take decades…It’s not like there are legacy systems that have been used in the cannabis space. [Canada] only just legalized for recreation two days ago. So that is why it’s the perfect industry. I do think that real estate transactions are going to be blockchain-based eventually, but it’s going to take a decade or two. But cannabis we can do right away.”
The blockchain is already in use by a number of large companies for their supply chains. FedEx, Walmart, IBM and many others have begun to embrace the technology for its ability to provide immutable records of products from the time they’re harvested or created to the time they reach the consumer.
Added Reitzik, “[T]he cannabis business is going to be absolutely massive over the next couple of years, and we want every gram that is moved around the world and consumed to be tracked and traced by our platform.”
The blockchain provides the means to ensure that producers and distributors are being held accountable for their actions along the chain and helps to reduce expenses, by some estimates, as much as 35% – an important factor when trying to convince big business to adopt the technology.
