Funding a Cannabis Retail Start-Up

Banks don’t touch it because technically its monies either somehow related to, for or from the sales or production of a Federal schedule 1 substance and interstate trafficking laws (among others) still apply to its’ movement across state lines, digitally or otherwise. If anything dispensaries will deal in local co-op’s or little credit unions (all cash) but mostly they just have a big safe.
Zcash could probably be accepted assuming all retail txs are properly recorded and then exchanged in-state basically (plus then you have declare all gains (or loss) at the end of the year (de-minimus would probably only hold to the customer (micro-entity))).

OK, that sounds like a lot for the Zcash grant to give away. The cost not strictly related to Zcash payment shouldn’t be included here in my view.

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Hi noamchom, somebody linked your post to me so I would like to clarify a few things.

1.I was given a grant for $3300, not $5000.

2.I’m still gathering footage. What I have released so far is just small clips. Cant film something like this in a month (or months)

3.I have come out of pocket at least $5000 because I had to purchase a new container to fit the smaller parachute, and other miscellaneous unforeseen expenses such as doggy day care while I’m away from home all day with nobody to watch my dog.
On a good day I have to spend $200 just to get 2 jumps in.

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Thanks for the comment. I’ve thoroughly researched this 10 months ago when I wrote our business model. The US tax code governs business income - and there are no city and state regulatory laws that prevent us from accepting crypto.

I shared the articles for a reason - my partners will be the next largest thing in the cannabis industry that few if any “made-up” brands will be able to compete with - because we have done this all ourselves. We aren’t marketing like others - appealing to the urban crowd or glorifying women in bikini’s smoking cannabis - We are selling family, access to information and a vibe/lifestyle that promotes people’s search for their own passions. We also have access to the best genetics in the country right now. :wink:
ZEC community to invest 47K, is a small price to pay to be apart of a truly unique company and group of individuals who hearts are in the right place. It represents an opportunity for each community member to promote this partnership - to create content about a unique pairing. I’m working on the proposal to add our deliverables and how this could benefit the entire network. Thank you again for the comments posted here.

Thanks for the comment. We have an active FDIC cannabis bank, they just require more steps for us to conduct business. Yes you are correct, Zcash can be accepted, along with any other form of property (US Tax code). We just have to pay our taxes in USD…and yes the holding of crypto creates a potential double tax scenario for us, which is alleviated by working with Rocket Fuel Blockchain merchant platform.

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Who won’t allow us to accept crypto?

Our retail software is processing the transactions in USD, METRC is collecting those transactions in USD for tax purposes. Collecting payment is outside the scope of California Cannabis regulatory agency DCC, that falls under what is business income based on the US tax code. Thanks for your comment.

Forget my Swiftian “Modest Proposal”. Real life exceeds satire. I must identify the Emperor’s New Clothes:

This is literally a request for a “dev fee” grant to throw a big party, and give away free weed.

Indeed, the lavish $20k party and the thousands (tens of thousands?) of dollars worth of free product seems to be the vast majority of your request. It is audacious.

If @ZcashGrants were to grant this, or even seriously to consider it, that would put them in breach of fiduciary duty. Instead, they should seriously reconsider the public image that they are presenting to attract such requests. It also indicates to me that the whole “dev fee” system should be stopped ASAP, per Zcash’s original design.

ZEC community to give me $47k as a gift is a small price to pay in tribute to my glory. I am so truly unique that my pseudonyms get linked by my style and my substance. My heart is clearly in the right place.

@ponchobrotherz, no offense. If I weren’t a long-term ZEC holder myself, I would find this admirable. You have so much self-confidence, you just told a forum where too many people are desperate for their coin to be liked that $47k is a small price to pay for your attention. That takes guts!

Maybe the Zcash community should pay you $47k for coaching in self-confidence and self-esteem. Or perhaps there is a better way: If you buy ZEC, hold it in your own shielded wallet, get a taste of the total freedom of sending transactions within the shielded value pool, then you will soon be one of Zcash’s gutsiest promoters. Hey, I know your heart is in the right place!

You to invest only about $600 at current prices will get you 10 ZEC for your beginner shielded stash. (ZEC is on deep discount sale right now. If you don’t want to be a cheapskate, start with 100 ZEC. You’ll buy more later anyway, and you may regret missing the cheap prices now.) It’s a small price to pay, to be a part of a truly unique crypto ecosystem and community of individuals whose hearts are in the right place.

I’m too busy to do tech support now; but there are plenty of nice people on this forum willing to help you get up and rolling with a shielded wallet. Now, once you have bought yourself some ZEC, of course, you will want to use it. I don’t like revealing where I shop; but here is a good recommendation: It is publicly known that I do some domain registration at Njalla (onion). Their fully-shielded Zcash checkout system is excellent (as of Sapling; I haven’t yet tried since Orchard activation), and they don’t require you to give any information except for an e-mail address. You can use Tor Browser (be sure to verify the signature), use the onion, and register domain names with privacy.

Once you get a taste of it—once you feel the mind-blowing experience of financial transactions with effectually infinite anonymity, you will so much want to share that with your customers, you’ll be eager to take ZEC as your most preferred payment option. Maybe you’ll even offer a discount for people who pay in ZEC, just to get more ZECs in your store’s wallet without the cost and overhead of exchanges!


The Zcash community should learn from Bitcoiners.

Every time that Bitcoin crashes, every time that the mass media declares Bitcoin dead, there is a hard core of BTC holders who just laugh and buy more BTC. Because we are absolutely sure that BTC will be priced >$1 million someday. That sounded crazy at $2 or $200; it doesn’t sound so crazy anymore, at $22,000.

Oh, no, forget about asking anyone to pay you $47,000 to accept BTC. LOL. Give free help and technical support to get set up, yes—pay someone to accept real money, no. (“Real money” means BTC, not depreciating central bank shitcoins like USD.) You’ve gotta want it. If you don’t, then instead of begging to be liked, Bitcoiners will laugh at you. You need Bitcoin; Bitcoin does not need you.

Zcashers could learn from that. Or keep doing the same thing.


Not that it substantively matters here, but I am curious:

Does it support shielded? :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

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The idea of being able to pay with crypto in a cannabis retail store is promising, although I’m not sure if it should be 100% cashless. It’s a good thing to respect the client’s anonymity, but there are a lot of people that don’t use crypto yet, so you might actually lose clients.

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Jesus Christ. I can’t believe they funded a parachuting video. Who approved that nonsense?

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Not sure, but as I’ve shared in other funding topic threads, ZCG should be measuring something like a Return on Capital for these proposals. The parachuting content generated very little impact but was also relatively cheap.

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Whoever it was needs to be held accountable for their flagrant misuse of their position. They should get $5000 that they squandered deducted from their salary at the minimum.

I stumbled upon this thread and I gotta say, your cannabis retail store sounds dope!

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Thank you- Feel free to stop by when we re-open

I agree with tm3k it was well worth the money. Are we seriously arguing over 5K?

On July 29th we’ll be accepting zcash for payment

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there are already solutions for this coming “soon”. AMP works with major firms that enabled crypto payments including Zcash to he used for payments via the Flexa a network for retail payments. If you want to accept crypto connect to the Clover, NCR, or others who have the hardware to accept zcash. Chipotle already accepts zcash so see what hardware they use.

Or just charge separately and let people pay direct using your y cash or lite wallet. then you transfer to the exchange to sell for cash or hold it.

I’ll come check it out sometime when I’m in the area!

How do you do point-of-sale transactions? Have you had any ZEC payments?

One thought about ZCG grants: if you produced something that’s generally useful for ZEC developers, businesses, or users (beyond your store’s direct customers) that might be more likely to receive a grant.

So some brainstorms might be making a howto video for how you do ZEC payments OTC, or write a report of challenges and benefits of using ZEC for payment vs other cryptos or methods, or maybe a report on “approaches and lessons in marketing to customers with ZEC”, or other such info that might benefit a wider range of retailers.

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Hi @nathan-at-least , thanks for the advice and great suggestions. I see your point about helping the broader category of retailers or businesses. What would be a fair budget for something like this, for example if I made a youtube video and a info-graphic for retailers? I’ll work on a proposal this weekend. Thanks again.