Nov 16, 2021
We’re bringing Web 3 to the $88 billion cannabis industry
Learn how we’re creating the world’s first NFT-enabled cannabis membership network, and how you can be a part of it.
This is the first article in a series that will walk you through who we are, and how we plan to unlock the potential of Web 3 for the cannabis community.
I’ve been in the Northern California cannabis industry for almost a decade.
I’m actually writing this post from a mountain top that looks similar to the one in the picture above.
During my time in the industry, I’ve performed almost every job imaginable. You name it, and I’ve probably done it.
About two years ago, I decided it was time to make the switch from cannabis cultivation to cannabis e-commerce.
I’ve followed the tech industry for as long as I can remember.
The time felt right to combine my knowledge of the cannabis industry with emerging technologies and a changing legal landscape.
The future is digital, I figured. And although I was probably early, I felt confident it was the right move.
The move paid off. Earlier this year, I was recruited to join a cannabis e-commerce startup as its first employee.
The company checked all the boxes. It was well funded, it had big names, and their business model made a lot of sense.
The downside? The founders of the company were a few years older, and financially set for life. They didn’t have to fight in trenches anymore. If there was conflict, they could easily walk away instead of grinding out a solution.
But I signed up anyway because I’m an optimist and the company had massive potential.
Around mid-July of this year, daily operations at the startup were put on hold due to “unforeseen circumstances.”
Fears realized. Downside unlocked.
I wasn’t happy about it, but looking back, the timing couldn’t have been better.
In my spare time, I had been learning as much as I could about crypto, NFTs, and DeFi. That’s where the energy’s been this year, and I haven’t been able to look away.
People call it Web 3 now. Just a few months ago, nobody was calling it that.
So right as leadership announced the work stoppage, everything I was learning about Web 3 in my spare time was coming together.
The chaos was starting to make sense.
I was actually relieved the founders put the startup on hold. It felt like a late Web 2 company. But my mind was fully immersed in Web 3.
The day after I left the startup, I went back to working a project I had been tinkering with for months. This time with a better understanding of how to utilize the concepts emerging in Web 3.
I’m going to walk you through that project over the next several days, and let you know how you can be a part of it.
For Context
There are about 45 million cannabis consumers in the United States and Canada combined. There are an estimated 200 million consumers worldwide, although I suspect it’s higher.
Consumers in the US spent about $88 billion on cannabis in 2019 (New Frontier Data).
About $20 billion of that was spent in legal dispensaries (22.7%). The other $68 billion was spent on the illicit market.
New ecosystems will replace old ones.
James Currier, from the VC firm NFX, claims that “network effects are responsible for 70% of the value created by tech companies since the internet became a thing in 1994”.
That’s a lot of value. But where did it go?
It went to founders, investors, governments, and one would think some of it went to users.
Right now, in the early stages of Web 3, current tech founders are rethinking how the value they create gets allocated.
After all, they have to drive more value than their Web 2 competitors if they want to gain traction.
Even the language is changing. And language matters when shaping the future.
In Web 3, we’re watching the careful construction of digital ecosystems that will shape the future of the internet.
Everyone working in Web 3 is being guided by their intuition.
Here is where my intuition has led me, and what we’re creating at True Harvest.
Below is a list of all the features on our True Harvest Roadmap.
We’re going to be releasing a new blog post for every feature to better communicate our ideas and where we plan to take our organization.
Members Only Dispensary Platform — 11/17/21
The Harvest Book — 11/19/21
Web 3 Investment Fund — 11/22/21
Craft Cannabis Digital Marketplace — 11/24/21
Members Only E-Commerce — 11/26/21
Political Action Team — 11/27/21
Movie Production — 11/30/21
You can read more about True Harvest by going to our homepage.
Here is a link to our roadmap.
Here is an invite to our Discord.
You can sign up for our email list here.
And you can follow me on Twitter here
