Created in mid-2017, GreenMed (greenmed.io) is a mobile payment app that uses blockchain technology to enable legal marijuana merchants to accept debit and credit card payments from customers. The app is not yet available for use by the general public and is planning to become fully operational in the second quarter of 2018. GreenMed is far from the first cryptocurrency platform or payment processor to court the marijuana industry, but it will be the first to enable buyers and sellers to instantaneously send and receive payments in fiat currency. This means that merchants and consumers will not need to purchase or hold GreenMed tokens, the company’s unit of exchange, and therefore will not be subject to the price fluctuations that plague most virtual currencies.
GreenMed enables users to enter their debit or credit card numbers into the app and browse products at local dispensaries. At checkout, they can then use their stored debit or credit card information to purchase an amount of GreenMed tokens equivalent to their total, which is then transferred to the merchant. Merchants can choose to instantly convert that amount from GreenMed tokens to fiat currency at the market rate and receive a payout directly to their bank account or to a GreenMed Visa debit card. GreenMed plans to charge a small fee on each transaction through the app and then distribute the earnings from these fees to holders of GreenMed tokens. This creates an incentive for users to hold onto GreenMed tokens rather than instantly cash out to fiat currency in all cases.
Similar cryptocurrency platforms like BitPay and Coinbase have explicitly banned the use of their services for marijuana sales, but GreenMed specifically caters to the legal marijuana industry in states like Colorado and California. In theory, GreenMed’s use of its own cryptocurrency allows it to bypass the restrictions imposed by major financial institutions that operate credit card processing networks. In practice, however, there may prove to be some regulatory hurdles for users who try to make purchases in the app with their bank-issued credit cards or withdraw from the app to their conventional bank accounts. GreenMed is currently conducting a presale of GreenMed tokens that will end on October 31, 2017. Its app is due for release on the Google and Apple app stores in early 2018. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, but it does not provide an exact address in its public-facing materials. David Dahan is the CEO of GreenMed