I’m opening a cannabis retail store in San Francisco in the next few weeks and we will be the first retailer to be 100% cashless. We will be accepting crypto as well and we are looking for one (exclusively) or more coins to accept at launch. I’ve been a fan of privacy coins and I wanted to reach out to your community first to get your ideas about giving us a grant to help with our start-up costs, including our grand opening in August.
Here is an article that talks about our plans:
I can answer any questions that the community may have before applying.
I would be strongly opposed to any usage of Zcash development-funding seigniorage for this type of enterprise. It seems pretty far out of scope to me; and although I would like to see funding for platforms that expand Zcash adoption, especially if open-source, I think it would set a bad precedent to give away free money to businesses that may simply accept ZEC as a payment option.
If word gets out on that, the line will go around the block to get free ZEC for configuring ZEC as a payment option. That’s not good for ZEC holders—and it does not significantly promote the cause of privacy, either.
I do think that Zcash needs to focus more on marketing to B2C use cases, among other things I have been preparing an essay about. But it must come from the direction of connecting with businesses that add value to their business by accepting ZEC—not by essentially bribing enterprises, at Zcash’s expense, to accept a currency that is beneficial to them to accept. Zcash needs to be wanted—and it should be wanted!
At that, @ponchobrotherz, on a positive note: You say you are a fan of privacy coins. What value would it bring to your startup, to accept the privacy coin which objectively, incontestably has the best privacy? How would it benefit your business and your customers? As a Zcasher who has much enjoyed Zcash’s privacy, I always like to hear about such things; and the world needs to hear about them, too.
Not commenting on this proposal specifically but I wonder if @ZcashGrants should setup a specific rulebook for a pool of funds for support retailers adopting Zcash in a similar way to how they have a seperate program for ambassadors. A set of rules where if all the criteria are met a retailer can ask for financial aid or POS support to help them adopt Zcash into their store. Something we can advertise to the greater population and give tangible steps to people wanting to accept Zcash.
Depending on the proposal amount, i think this should be funded. Lets not fool ourselves about whether or not this qualifies considering that last year we payed a guy $5,000 to go on a parachuting trip that yielded a choppy 45 second video
Assumptions:
this is a one time cost with clear deliverables (all of which should be agreed by the community prior to funding)
the retailer prominently displays its use/ advocates for customers to use Zcash both in person and via social media (this should be incrementally verified by the grant receiver)
I also agree that a good point is raised here about the idea of boilerplating a retailer grants proposal and our general expectations about cost, delivery, features, etc
I’d go for such proposal: there is no marcom projection and plan but it is a practical implementation of a great use of zcash.
The outcome will be that every customer gets a look at zcash in a very particular situation. I think this has a much bigger impact than a very nice video on YouTube.
I’m really glad to see a Cannabis business specifically interested in Zcash - I think ZEC is a great fit for legal businesses that are discriminated against by the traditional banking system.
I think, however, that this falls outside the parameters of the type of project that ZCG would/ought to fund. That said @gguy raises a great point - perhaps it might be worth working on an RFP for a kind of small-scale Zcash Business consultancy? One that could give interested businesses a crash course in Zcash, how it works, what its benefits are, and how to go about using it for point-of-sale/banking operations. Potentially even work on retail business focused outreach/marketing.
Totally agree. I was one of the first to have a “cannabis card” aka a Measure-Z backed card I got at one of the first “dispensaries” in Oakland. I even grew it, and I run a cannabis website.
However, I don’t think that this fits the scope of the dev fund. Especially without any specific proposal.
But having some kind of partnership with ZGo or something could be interesting. But again, I don’t think receiving money to start the biz makes sense. That’s a risk you take for being a founder, and there are plenty of other blindspots with Zcash right now that the money could fund.
A headline question for the community: Is ZEC money? Is ZEC something valuable, which you treat as valuable? Do you expect for others to value ZEC at market? How do you handle money?
That sort of whataboutism is an argument that Zcash development-funding seigniorage has been frivolously, profligately wasted and dissipated in ways that I find alarming. It is an argument that I should have spent the past five years devoting hours of my limited lifetime to following every tortuous Zcash drama, and complaining very loudly about waste and misdirection of funds. It is an argument that I should start doing so forthwith.
It is also an argument that I am stupid for buying ZEC, instead of dreaming up ways to get free ZEC for nothing on the ZEC-seigniorage gravy-train.
Not an argument in favour of paying businesses to accept ZEC.
Wow, the conversation is moving ahead of me here. This is a quote from a draft of a long post that I have been writing for days, where I had added this thread as an example supporting a bigger point about sales and self-confidence:
I need to finish that. With my constructive suggestions and proposals for Zcash.
Advertisement: I am serious about the consulting services—paid by the hour, so that I can get something for my time here. Do you want free funding for your business? I will explain to you why Zcash is a perfect fit for your business. Then, when you are suitably impressed at what accepting ZEC can do for your business, I will get you in touch with people who will want to grant you freebie ZEC. Wheeee!
I strongly agree with this, without regard to my positive or negative opinions of any particular business. The principle is similar to, and entwined with defending the freedom of speech. I would be happy to see the owners of such businesses pop up asking for technical support or advice about how to accept Zcash, or simply to let the Zcash community know in an appropriate, non-spammy manner that they are now accepting ZEC.
When someone with no apparent prior history with Zcash creates a new forum account, and in his very first post announces his desire to get on the ZEC-seigniorage gravy train for an unrelated business, I see that differently.
Thanks for your comments. I want to respond to your direct questions.
The value that it would bring us is to further define our company values- is that privacy aligns with who we are as people - We,individually have fought for other human rights and we embrace the spirit and fundamental intentions of privacy coins. We also feel that using a Zcash will give us a marketing advantage over any other cannabis company in our local market that will bring new customers to us that we might have not been able to reach otherwise. We have our own ecommerce solution that would facilitate easy payment transactions both in-store and delivery.
Hi. Thanks. I like that you offer ZGo and I would consider this option as a back-up but I would prefer to first explore RocketFuel Blockchain merchant service and their relationship with exchanges for it’s ease of use.
I’m seeking $27,000 that will be used for product giveaways and initial payroll for training/staffing.
$20,000 for the neighborhood grand opening expenses. $47,000 total.
Yes, we would be ok with a one time costs and we can show deliverables (cannabis license issuance, active website/ecommerce ability, social media posts, etc)
We would have an instore sign/QR code that promotes Zcash usage. We can agree to social media posts that promotes adoption.
METRC tracks sales in USD, which presents a regulatory problem likely.
Not familiar with California regulatory rules on this topic, but you may be surprised to find that all transactions of any sort are required to be in US Dollars.
There have been days at a time where nothing works. And then, regulations are simply excused. Regulation only matters when the political enforcement apparatus wants it to.
I’m glad people think zcash is neat, and want to integrate it into newest businesses. It’s great that such powerful tech is so easy to use, but many new entrants really don’t understand how powerful and society shaping this magic actually is, and why the state simply won’t allow what OP wants.
