Jessica VerSteeg, CEO of Paragon and ParagonCoin, discusses how blockchain and crypto-currency can positively impact the legal cannabis industry.

It is said that necessity is the mother of invention.

For Jessica VerSteeg, necessity first came in relation to AuBox, her monthly cannabis subscription box available in San Francisco. She needed a way to provide efficiency, transparency, and trust in the cannabis industry for her customers, while also maintaining compliance with government regulations. Already a believer in blockchain and crypto-currency, she created her own offline ecosystem that can verify patient’s medical marijuana cards, and provide verification of ingredients in edibles and other products she sells, and much more.

Though government regulations currently only allow medical marijuana to be purchased with cash, the ecosystem also has the functionality to use crypto-currency as a payment method. While the cannabis industry waits for these regulations to change, she has created an online community for the cannabis industry and cannabis users to work towards their goals.

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