Cannabis, Bitcoin and the Future

  • Blockchain Company Plans to Transform Business Model of Entire Medical Cannabis Sector in Australia

So-called blockchain – the technology behind the current cryptocurrency phenomenon like the now well-known Bitcoin, which recently crossed the massive value threshold of 10,000 USD per Bitcoin and became a momentary topic of discussion worldwide. Technologies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Litecoin are currently a huge challenge for developers and a great hope for business, technological progress, and economies of today's world.

Using blockchain, one of the leading companies focused on developing applications for the cannabis business, Global Cannabis, plans to introduce a new blockchain software with the purpose of implementation in the medical cannabis industrial sector.

The power of blockchain lies mainly in its decentralized, publicly accessible form of transactions and public ledger. Blockchain is currently being compared across the technological community in its potential impact on society to inventions like the first printer, combustion engine, or even the internet itself.

Blockchain X Bitcoin

Blockchain is the technology on which cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (one of many currently developed cryptocurrencies) are built, especially because blockchain technology allows the elimination of third-party involvement in monetary transactions, such as today's banks. Blockchain is thus a publicly accessible, non-interchangeable chain of transactions that allows individual transaction parties to transfer currencies and values with absolute resistance to unauthorized manipulation.

Proponents of this technology firmly believe that blockchain will completely and permanently transform the way value transfers and contract executions are made. Moreover, there is heated discussion and work on ways to implement blockchain into tax systems or the healthcare sector, where blockchain-based ledgers would greatly simplify both patient information storage and drug prescription methods.

On the other hand, there are many critics who consider the entire excitement around blockchain to be significantly exaggerated and see no other use for the technology beyond currency. It seems that the greatest concerns are currently present in potential applications in the healthcare sector and protection of patient private data.

Cannabis and Blockchain in Australia

Enthusiasts and critics will soon be able to evaluate their positions by observing the live implementation of blockchain technology in Australia, where its use in the medical cannabis healthcare sector will be tested.

The Australian branch of Global Cannabis plans to join forces with BuddingTech, which focuses on collecting high-quality data from patients treating themselves with cannabis and transferring it to clinical studies, through which scientists are trying to decipher how to use cannabis for maximum medical effects. By combining Global Cannabis and BuddingTech, a specialized team of software developers will be created, focusing on implementing blockchain technology and artificial digital intelligence to manage regulatory processes in the medical cannabis sector.

Once Australia completes the entire medical cannabis legalization process, clinical data will become a highly valued commodity for companies focused on developing effective drugs based on cannabis. Successful clinical studies are absolutely crucial for both enabling cannabis medications to be released to the market and for the overall credibility and safety of the final product.

Blockchain technology will possibly have a fundamental impact on Australia's currently very fresh medical cannabis industrial sector. The modern software could also prevent product leaks targeted at patients from reaching the black market through a highly secure patient information ledger.

Global Cannabis is already looking at the next step of potential future expansion. The company's CEO, Brad Moore, wants to build the first cannabis industry model in Australia based on blockchain technology and continue to other countries. "If we establish a perfectly efficient model capable of securely storing and working with patient and product data in the medical cannabis sector, which is a very complex task, then we can confidently expand this model to other advanced countries where medical cannabis use is on the rise," Moore explains his perspective.

Global Cannabis is not the first cannabis company to consider using blockchain technology. In the USA, a so-called Potcoin has been circulating, through which transactions occur between patients treating themselves with cannabis and individual companies issuing cannabis products.

Source:
Wilson, Joe. "Blockchain Company Aims to Transform Australia's Medical Cannabis Sector." Leafly, 13 Sept. 2017, www.leafly.com/news/science-tech/blockchain-company-aims-to-transform-australias-medical-cannabis-sector.

Author: Joe Wilson