In recent article in Denver Post-owned marijuana-industry publication The Cannabist, the first batch of soon-to-launch pot vending machines will be built to be bitcoin friendly. The machines are being marketed under the brand name ZaZZZ, and are intended as an ancillary service for use in marijuana dispensaries.
The machines aren’t quite as simple to use as the snack machines at the break room at work, however. ID-checking mechanisms, as well as additional features for states with medical marijuana laws, make buying the increasingly legalized drug more complicated than pushing D7 for a bag of chips. Then again, users can pay with more than bills and pocket change, with options for credit cards and NFC payments. And, tellingly, bitcoin.
When buyers select the BTC option, the machine produces as QR code. Customers simply scan the code and pay with their smartphone wallet. Speaking with CoinDesk, American Green COO Stephen Shearin spoke about his company’s ZaZZZ machine.
Providing a payment facility that has a super-low cost to it, like bitcoin, is an effective way to provide these guys, dispensaries and dispensary owners, with a means of doing their business that is more efficient than other facilities that charge a higher fee.”
Bitcoin has long been favored by the rapidly growing medical marijuana community, allowing legal dispensaries a means of moving moving funds while blocked from the banking system by federal law. Although those restrictions are easing, many legal marijuana businesses are still dubious about using the traditional banking system while the drug is illegal on the federal level.
