Blockchain helps California cannabis producer track their weed

A cannabis nursery in California uses blockchain and smart contracts to ensure that its plants are genuine. On January 13, the EMTRI project and the technology company Global Compliance Applications announced their partnership, in which Mendocino Clone Company was named as one of the participating cannabis nurseries. All clones, or young plants, will be given a batch certificate using the project's blockchain capabilities.

Nurseries for cannabis are businesses focusing on plant breeding and creating cannabis clones, seedlings, and pollen for commercial sale. Nursery owners can now,

"document the beginning stages of a cannabis plant's journey to becoming a premium product for consumers based on the gram weight it flowers," as they put it.

Each clone batch has its certificate, an autonomous smart contract. This system gives each seedling its own “unique identity block,” which the nursery generates and links to its Ethereum-based blockchain. Commercial farms and retail dispensaries are among its customers who can use this to ensure the legitimacy of their clones and their genetic lineage. The first batch of certificate clones will be made available in the first week of February. In addition, licensed growers who invest in Mendocino clones will be eligible to receive EMTRI token (EMT) rewards and preferential pricing as part of the blockchain initiative.

To incentivize project participants, EMT was introduced in November 2022. Tokens can be sold on Uniswap in exchange for USDC or staked to earn additional rewards. However, no significant cryptocurrency exchanges or data aggregators like CoinGecko feature EMT in their listings. Scott Zarnes, the co-founder of EMTRI Corp, said:

"We are excited to be at the forefront of the cannabis industry becoming the first in the United States to adopt this cutting-edge technology in this manner,"

However, the idea of combining crypto with cannabis is not new. In November, a Metaverse project called Cannaland was launched to create a virtual world for cannabis enthusiasts. A custom pipe manufacturer began selling tokenized bongs in January 2022, and celebrities like Snoop Dogg and Santana quickly snapped up the NFTs.

As early as 2014, initiatives like PotCoin (POT) and CannabisCoin (CANN) sought to supply an industry-specific digital currency; however, neither project saw significant adoption.