Berkeley City Council Member The First To Buy Cannabis With Cryptocurrency

Berkeley City Council Member Ben Bartlett has become the first elected official to ever purchase cannabis with cryptocurrency as we are about to read in the coming altcoin news below.

According to the news reports from the Daily Californian, the Berkeley City Council Member purchased cannabis using cryptocurrency during the event that was organized by the Blockchain Advocacy Coalition last Tuesday. This event was held in order to increase awareness to a bill proposing the cryptocurrency payments for California’s cannabis industry. Bartlett purchases the cannabis via the crypto-financial platform CRED in a transaction that only took seconds to complete. Ohana Cannabis Co- which is the cannabis merchant in the transaction simply accepted the payment via the LBA token which is cred’s native cryptocurrency. Bartlett declared:

‘’By providing a cash-free method of cannabis tax collections, AB 953 can reduce costs and safety risks for cities and businesses. The Green Rush is a 21st-century industry; it deserves 21st-century legislation. Tax collections leveraging stablecoin technology will help bring this new industry into the light.’’

According to the US Federal Statutes, cannabis is still illegal despite the many attempts to make it legal for recreational use in states like California. The business is still cash-based and there is almost zero banking support. The federal banks in the United States have been known to close down the accounts of many marijuana investors. The nature of the industry that is cash-based causes serious problems when considering the sales and city tax payments. The state tax officials tend to spend some more money and their time to accept payments in large fiat deposits. For the co-founder of cred, Dan Schatt, cryptocurrencies can provide solutions for these problems:

‘’Not only does crypto result in significant cost reduction for consumers and merchants, but it also enables highly productive tax collection, transparency, and predictability for city and state governments.’’

Cannabis is still a very taboo subject and so are the cryptocurrency payments and systems but it still seems like crypto is the perfect transactional tool for the industry. Berkeley’s Blockchain department’s Liam DiGregoria commented on the efforts that Bartlett made in leading the way for marijuana to become normalized among the elected officials and as he noted for the latest cryptocurrency news reports:

‘’There’s a negative public perception that people in higher levels of office shouldn’t use (cannabis), let alone buy it.’’