
Confident Cannabis (YC S15) is the stock exchange of weed - cpach
https://techcrunch.com/2016/06/15/buy-dro-sell-high/
======
n00b101
I think "commodity exchange" would be the correct term, as opposed to "stock
exchange."

Trading commodities on an exchange definitely makes sense. Indeed, all legal
commodities are traded on exchanges. It also makes sense for exchanges to
create standardised grades for a commodity, in order to control for variations
in the product. For example, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange defines the
following grades of wheat just under a single tradeable contract: "No. 2 Soft
Red Winter, No. 2 Hard Red Winter, No. 2 Dark Northern Spring, No. 2 Northern
Spring, No. 1 Soft Red Winter, No. 1 Hard Red Winter, No. 1 Dark Northern
Spring, No. 1 Northern Spring."

Commodities are generally traded on futures exchanges. You are not simply
agreeing to buy a specific grade and quantity of the commodity for a certain
price, you are also agreeing on exactly where and when that commodity will be
delivered. This normally involves having standardised delivery facilities and
handling procedures for the commodity. Since the transaction entails agreeing
to purchase something at a future time, it is called a futures contract.

~~~
walrus01
I don't think you can treat it like a commodity exchange (futures contracts
for N tons of soybeans, for example), even if you restict the platform only to
dried flower bud product and ignore every other form of cannabis, due to the
extreme variety of types of flower and plant. It would be like trying to have
a chicago mercantile exchange commodity platform for wine.

~~~
eru
See
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_International_Vintners_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_International_Vintners_Exchange)

~~~
walrus01
I realize this is a real thing, but "investment grade wine" sounds like such a
preposterously stereotypical WASP thing... I'm sure they have a storage
facility in the Hamptons.

~~~
eru
This is in England. The country that gave the world the original WASPs.

------
mynegation
I find it questionable on YC part to fund a cannabis-related company. On one
hand, there is a clear... growth opportunity, on another - in my opinion it is
pretty much on par with financing something tobacco-related and may be
detrimental to YC's public image.

To be perfectly clear, I am pro-legalization, as war on drugs only funnels
money to criminal organizations, as if we did not learn anything from
Prohibtion era. I still consider cannabis public evil in a way tobacco and
excessive consumption of alcohol are public evil.

~~~
aethr
Excessive consumption of cannabis is probably not good for your health. Like
alcohol. Or sugar, coffee, social media, or watching TV. Granted, people
probably have different opinions on the definition of "excessive" in each of
these cases.

Taken occasionally for recreation it becomes just another form of
entertainment, and the health and societal impact is probably similar to
alcohol or coffee.

Calling cannabis a "public evil" seems a bit over the top. There are plenty of
other pastimes with potential health and societal risks that outweigh
occasional use of cannabis. Should we stigmatise every activity that isn't
work, exercise or healthy eating?

I think adults should be given room to make informed choices about their
recreational activities without being judged, as long as their choices don't
negatively impact others.

~~~
mynegation
I agree that calling it "public evil" was over the top. My understanding is
that most of cannabis is consumed through smoke inhalation which is about the
worst possible form of delivery with all that tar in the lungs and
carcinogenic effects.

~~~
aethr
From my anecdotal experience, I would agree that most cannabis is consumed by
smoking. For casual recreational users though, this might amount to as little
as the equivalent of one cigarette a month. Still not good for you, but
probably not in the same league as tobacco smoking which is much more likely
to be habitual.

Habitual cannabis users on the other side of the spectrum seem to be
acknowledging the health risks of smoking, and (again anecdotally) I'm seeing
a lot of habitual users switch to vaporising or other delivery methods.

Certainly there are people making poor decisions about cannabis use, but on a
whole it doesn't seem much worse than plenty of other things that people do
regularly without being stigmatised. Certainly not bad enough to become a
moral issue in my opinion.

------
TillE
Are there any startups working on the actual breeding/growing process itself?

I know in recent years it's been a little easier to work on this stuff openly
with medical grows in California, but the vast majority of breeding has been
done illegally and therefore at smaller scales than you'd really want. Feels
like there's still plenty of room for optimization of both the genetics and
the overall growing process, and both areas could benefit from some
specialized software.

~~~
rezistik
Hey, I'm the CTO @ Flora, we're working on a cannabis breeding platform for
selective breeding. There's a ton of room for optimization in the breeding
process, let me know if you have any specific questions on it, I'd love to
chat.

~~~
Aelinsaar
What's the state of LED growing? Is it ready to take over for HID?

~~~
rezistik
HID's are still king, but there is a lot of great things happening with LED's.
One of the cool things about them is that they can be tuned into specific
spectrums that are optimized for photosynthesis.

~~~
Aelinsaar
That sounds pretty exciting, especially if popular strains can be optimized
for those wavelengths.

------
tdaltonc
I'm struggling with the "stock exchange" metaphor. Does it mean something
other then "marketplace"?

~~~
ccrush
You have the ability to make money in the market by providing liquidity by
giving your money to the farmers so they can buy and smoke their meth today by
technically being the owner of the weed until such time that it dries and a
stoner is willing to buy and smoke it. It is called a commodity futures
contract exchange or a commodities market. I think they chose to be
condescending to their readers by using the stockmarket analogy and
essentially saying "these plebians have no idea what commodities are oe how
they are exchanged so let us use a word they've heard on their TV." Anyway,
what did you want them to call it instead of a "stock market[place]"? A
"[weed] market[place]"? Or just a "marketplace" and skip the analogy
altogether?

Also, I wonder what happens if you get pulled over with certificates that say
you own a whole bunch of weed? If that is found in plain sight, does it give
probable cause to search further?

~~~
tdaltonc
Awww ok. Ya, "a commodities market for pot" makes a lot of sense. They're
vital to a functioning of any modern agricultural industry.

------
MichaelBurge
I'm really surprised YC are funding an illegal drug operation. The DOJ isn't
enforcing anything against this criminal behavior, but that can change if the
president wakes up one day in a different mood.

Steps 1 and 2 are more subject to state law, but their step 3 is literally to
set up a marketplace for illegal drugs over the internet(which crosses state
borders).

If their marketplace is just a directory and doesn't accept payment, they can
at least stay in business until they're raided. But I imagine it's going to be
very difficult to find a bank that's willing to process payments for a company
that handles illegal drugs, or even just to give you a checking account. They
have enough problems with regulators as it is.

If you stick purely to software and essentially only handle contracts, I still
wonder if a contract for illegal goods can be enforced in court. If I unwisely
buy 1000lb of marijuana from their marketplace and they don't deliver, what's
a judge going to do - order them to commit a crime to fulfill the contract? Or
void the contract entirely, which makes the whole system meaningless?

~~~
chillacy
The risk reward ratio is pretty favorable. If there's a big crackdown, that's
another startup down, no big deal, startups fail all the time. Or there's no
crackdown, and instead they have fewer competitors (because the industry is
perceived as dangerous and risky) and they really take off.

~~~
jsprogrammer
You don't appear to have considered being charged by the Feds with inter-state
drug trafficking, or similar.

~~~
chillacy
I assume YC board members have consulted with their lawyers as far as their
exposure goes.

------
jacquesm
Ridiculous that a quality brand like YC would be involved with a company like
this.

~~~
mbesto
"with a company like this" \- care to elaborate?

~~~
SamReidHughes
How is this any different from funding Silk Road?

~~~
mbesto
How is it the same? Did you actually read the article? It's not actually a
stock exchange for trading weed...

~~~
SamReidHughes
They're facilitating drug trafficking.

------
sverige
No, no, no, no! This will just make it easier for Big Ag (Monsanto, ConAgra,
ADM, et al.) to dominate the market. The plant itself will be "improved" with
foreign DNA so it can be mass-cultivated using chemical enhancements. Next
will be the intentional squeezing out of strains that are non-GMO. Then
margins will decrease for producers and varieties will be strictly limited.
Then comes all the people who care doing little crowd-funded projects to
preserve genetic variety.

Don't think it could happen? Do a little research on corn or cotton or
sunflowers or soybeans.

Whether you ingest the stuff or not (I don't), this kind of thing only helps
pave the way for truly nefarious corporate actors.

Source: raised in Iowa, son of a farmer, grandson-in-law of a deceased
executive of one of the Big Ag companies, and former pothead living in
Colorado.

~~~
bobbles
Eh this will happen anyway.

Just think of it as industrially produced beer vs craft beer, there will be
market for both if theres reason for there to be

~~~
sverige
Yeah, maybe. Legalization has already begun to mess up the economics in
Colorado.

~~~
eru
How so?

------
xyzzy4
Now someone just needs to make a 2x and -2x cannabis ETN.

------
danvayn
I like the URL for this article.

