As of 4.20 pm (Australia) 13 June 2018 the t-shirt stunt doesn’t seem to have done pot coin many favors after a short splurge surge yesterday !
In turn it reminded us of this story published last year in business insider
North Korea has been branded as a ‘weed-smoker’s paradise’ — but the truth is more complicated
For years, there have been rumours that North Korea is a “weed-smoker’s paradise.” Cannabis is said to grow wildly there, and people can reportedly buy it in large, bazaar-style marketplaces andsmoke it wherever they like.
But marijuana’s legal status in North Korea is hazy. An investigation by the Associated Press debunked the myth of the pot-friendly, totalitarian nation — despite numerous reports over the years saying North Korea is exactly that.
Most of what we know about life inside the Hermit Kingdom comes from estimates by outside agencies, as reports from the government are unreliable. The internet does not exist outside a closed domestic network. Without direct access to the law on the books, we’re left in a fog on drug policy.
In January, the AP’s Eric Talmadge provides some of the most conclusive evidence yet that marijuana is illegal in North Korea.
Torkel Stiernlof, a Swedish diplomat living in North Korea, told the AP that marijuana is a controlled substance in the same category as cocaine and heroin. He rejected the idea that government looks the other way when it comes to drug use, as some online stories suggest.
“There should be no doubt that drugs, including marijuana, are illegal here,” Stiernlof said. “One can’t buy it legally and it would be a criminal offence to smoke it.”
Source: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/is-marijuana-legal-in-north-korea-2017-5?r=US&IR=T
PotCoin is an ultra-secure digital cryptocurrency, network and banking solution for the $100 billion global legal marijuana industry.
PotCoin is the first digital currency created to facilitate transactions within the legalized cannabis industry. PotCoin is a community based effort.
PotCoins are digital coins you can send via the internet, which allow cannabis enthusiasts to interact, transact, communicate and grow together.
Here’s a Vox Report on Potcoin
It was one of the strangest moments of the summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un: Former NBA star Dennis Rodman showed up beforehand wearing a “Peace Starts in Singapore” T-shirt promoting PotCoin.com.
There’s much about this we can’t explain. But we can at least tell you what PotCoin is: Think of it as bitcoin’s marijuana-themed Canadian cousin. The company claims to be solving a real problem for legal marijuana dealers — the need to do business in cash because of federal banking regulations — by creating a digital cryptocurrency.
But according to experts, PotCoin mostly good at getting attention through stunts like this.
Because marijuana in the United States is classified as a Schedule 1 drug — on the same level as heroin and LSD and a grade above cocaine — most of the money that touches the marijuana business can’t be put into the banking system because it is federally regulated. PotCoin’s creators claim they’ve built a workaround that helps those in the legal industry avoid dealing in all cash: digital currency.
PotCoin’s debut in 2014 made quite a splash, with write-ups appearing in publications such asTechCrunch, Vice, and Business Insider, but then it sort of fizzled out. That is, until the company teamed up with Rodman, claiming to have sponsored foreign trips for the basketball player, including his latest travel to Singapore.
PotCoin spokesperson Shawn Perez told the Washington Post that the PotCoin team has been “incredibly supportive of Rodman’s peace mission from the beginning” and is “thrilled to see how the political climate has been improved between North Koreans and the US since he became involved.”
People who work with cryptocurrency or marijuana, though, aren’t exactly convinced on PotCoin.
“If PotCoin was as disruptive a banking solution as they market it, I would know at least one dispensary owner that used it,” Jason Spatafora, who runs MarijuanaStocks.com and tweets under the name @WolfOfWeedST, told me. “Truth is, there are much easier ways to process payments in the cannabis industry, and cash will always be king.”
Jeremy Gardner, a cryptocurrency entrepreneur and managing partner at the investment firm Ausum Ventures, acknowledged that PotCoin is trying to solve a “very real problem” for the cannabis industry of storing cash since there are limited banking options.
“Does it do a good job of solving that problem? No,” he told me. “Have they pulled off one of the most remarkable marketing coups of the 21st century? Absolutely.”
