NetworkNewsWire
Editorial Coverage: The meteoric rise in the price of bitcoin
in 2017, from just under $1,000 to above $15,000 at year-end, has
attracted the attention of investors around the world. Powered by
the blockchain, the distributed ledger technology which verifies
transactions without the need for third-party validation, the
cryptocurrency made great strides during the past year in achieving
acceptance by businesses willing to accept it as a means of
payment. Investors looking beyond bitcoin itself to find companies
that stand to benefit from the growing usage of bitcoin for
commercial transactions have a number of options to choose from,
including SinglePoint, Inc. (SING) (SING
Profile) and Square, Inc.
(SQ). Even industry behemoths like Discover
Financial Services (DFS), International Business
Machines Corp. (IBM) and Mastercard, Inc.
(MA) are getting on board to one degree or another, poised
to take advantage of the disruptive potential of cryptocurrencies
to facilitate the payment process.
SinglePoint, Inc. (SING) has
established itself in the burgeoning market for cryptocurrency
transaction platforms. Through diversification into horizontal
markets, SinglePoint has developed from a full-service mobile
technology provider into a holding company focused on building its
portfolio by acquiring interests in undervalued subsidiaries. The
company has developed, through its SingleSeed subsidiary, a proprietary bitcoin
payments solution designed to allow cannabis merchants and
customers to use bitcoin-enabled debit and credit cards to conduct
transactions. SinglePoint’s solution is in full compliance with
KYC-AML and is eligible for deployment in all types of businesses,
giving it potential beyond the cannabis market.
A cryptocurrency like bitcoin has the potential to help serve
the needs of under-banked markets such as the cannabis industry.
The classification of cannabis as a Schedule 1 drug at the federal
level under the Controlled Substances Act prevents most industry
merchants from using traditional banking services. This makes such
businesses virtually unbankable, forcing them to deal in cash with
all the inconvenience that can bring.
With its SingleSeed Payments platform, SinglePoint has taken the
lead in the U.S. in payment solutions for the industry. This
platform provides customers in any state where marijuana is legal
the convenience of transacting bitcoin-enabled purchases with their
debit and credit cards, similar to how they would use these cards
to purchase any other item. SingleSeed Payments also allow cannabis
dispensaries to digitally keep track of product inventories and to
upload product data like photos and descriptions. When products are
purchased the system automatically accounts for the reduction in
inventory in the merchant’s product listings.
This proprietary bitcoin exchange (app.singlessed.com) underwent
a soft launch on November 15, 2017, with an official launch planned
for the first quarter of 2018. Even if cannabis is legalized at the
federal level at some future time, the SingleSeed app is poised to
expand its use as an effective tool for handling retail cannabis
payments using cryptocurrency. Ultimately, the company hopes to
provide a completely integrated solution that can be used by all
types of businesses for end-to-end management of their day-to-day
business operations.
After achieving significant growth in 2017, SinglePoint is well
prepared to continue this trajectory in 2018. The company has
formalized a joint-venture agreement that it had previously
announced with AppSwarm
(SWRM) to begin development on an application that will make it
possible for licensed cannabis delivery services and dispensaries
to safely make in home deliveries. Through this and other
agreements and partnerships and product offerings, SinglePoint has
positioned itself in the forefront of both the cannabis and
cryptocurrency markets.
The company has entered into an agreement to advance and
streamline the process involving the delivery of payment
applications with Global Payout
(GOHE), a provider of customized financial technology
solutions. SinglePoint hopes to leverage its expertise in mobile
payments and associated mobile offerings to work with Global
Payment’s MoneyTrac (“MTRAC”) subsidiary, which is developing
payment solutions for the cannabis industry, to further the
optimization of its technology platform and add value to the
services it offers.
SinglePoint President Wil Ralston recently stated: “Through
strategic joint ventures and inside development of applications we
are pushing hard on providing a compliant solution to the cannabis
industry. Our team and others have worked well in collaboration,
and believe we are not far away from an official launch of this
solution in the first quarter of 2018.”
SinglePoint has also formed another strategic joint venture, in
this case with Smart Cannabis Corp (SCNA). Smart Cannabis provides
automated greenhouse systems as well as its unique SMART APP, which
offers seed-to-sale monitoring and automation for cannabis growers.
The firm is one of the few companies in the cannabis sector which
is profitable. The SMART APP enables cultivators to control their
operations from a mobile device. The two companies plan to
collaborate to integrate the app with SinglePoint’s bitcoin payment
solution, enabling cultivators to accept payment for their product
through the payment application, improving the safety and security
of such transactions.
“Cultivators need a solution to secure their payments. We are
looking to provide a solution that can be used from seed to sale,
the entire life cycle. The transaction from a cultivator to a
processor or dispensary can be huge, over $150,000 per transaction,
and it is simply not safe or efficient to carry that kind of cash
to a transaction,” Ralston stated. With California legalizing
recreational marijuana sales in 2018, this partnership helps
position SinglePoint to serve the expected increase in business in
the state. The company has taken other steps to position itself to
benefit from the legalization of cannabis in California, including
acquiring California-based Discount Indoor Garden Supply and
investing in Convectium, a cannabis equipment supplier located in
the state.
Legal marijuana sales are currently experiencing robust growth.
Sales are slated to amount to approximately $9.7 billion in North
America in 2017, 33 percent higher than in 2016, with industry
observers forecasting the market to rise to upward of $24.5 billion
in sales by 2021, according to an article in Business Insider
(http://nnw.fm/G6fKK). With the cannabis
industry ideally suited to pioneer the practice of fully blending
cryptocurrencies into its day-to-day operating practices,
SinglePoint has positioned itself to offer industry participants a
solution that helps them efficiently integrate bitcoin-based
payments into their operations. As a result, the company is well
placed to take advantage of the tremendous growth expected in the
sector.
Building on the company’s success in 2017, SinglePoint’s
management team plans to undertake an aggressive expansion
strategy. Management believes the multiple joint ventures and
agreements the company has signed will provide fruitful results
going forward, and plans to continue the strategy of making
acquisitions, which has been a powerful catalyst for corporate
growth, in 2018. SinglePoint’s management remains bullish on the
use of bitcoin and blockchain technologies to solve key issues in
the cannabis markets, and will seek out companies to acquire and
partner with to bring solutions to this growing market throughout
the year.
Another company which has taken steps to offer consumers the
ability to participate in the cryptocurrency revolution is
Square, Inc. (SQ), which provides credit card
payment processing solutions. The company also offers point-of-sale
services, financial services, and marketing services. The company
has released a beta trial enabling users to buy and sell bitcoin on
its cash app. The move was welcomed by investors who bid the
company’s stock up more than 100 percent in 2017, as it rose from
the approximately $15 in January to end the year at $34.67.
A major financial services firm which is closely watching the
cryptocurrency space and the development of blockchain technology
is Discover Financial Services (DFS), a direct
banking and payment services company that is one of the largest
U.S.-based card issuers. The company issues the Discover card and
offers a variety of loans and other services through its direct
banking network. In an article on the Discover Global Network,
bitcoin and other types of payments driven by blockchain technology
were described as being even more like cash than a debit
transaction would be, meaning that industries beyond payment
technology may want to consider how blockchain technology could be
used to help add efficiency to the management of data and
information.
A well-known name in computer technology for decades,
IBM (IBM) has wasted no time in taking steps to
capitalize on the power of the blockchain. The company recently
started processing payments between banks in the South Pacific
using a proprietary blockchain platform it developed. Another
notable example of IBM’s use of the blockchain is its partnership
with mega retailer Walmart to utilize a combination of IoT
(Internet of Things) sensors along with the blockchain to track
produce from farm to fork, allowing for the rapid removal of any
product which experiences quality issues. Traditionally, paper
tracking systems have been used for this purpose, which can allow
for inaccuracies and slow down the process of tracing food
products. Using the blockchain, tracking information on a product
can be called up in as little as 2.2 seconds rather than the
multiple days it might have taken previously.
Global payments technology giant Mastercard
(MA) is another major corporation making a move to utilize
the blockchain technology underlying cryptocurrencies such as
bitcoin for payment processing. The company is now allowing some
customers to send money via a blockchain instead of swiping a
credit card. Mastercard has developed its own blockchain which it
has announced is now available to certain banks and merchants to
use to send payments for goods and services. Mastercard joins its
fellow fortune 500 company IBM in allowing payments to be made over
a proprietary blockchain system.
Mastercard’s blockchain is different from IBM’s in that, while
the IBM blockchain utilizes Lumens, a virtual currency developed by
the non-profit Stellar, the Mastercard blockchain doesn’t use a
cryptocurrency to operate, instead accepting payments only in
traditional local money. In addition to payments, Mastercard also
envisions the use of the blockchain for applications such as
tracking the movement of goods such as pharmaceuticals or luxury
goods, providing authenticity data for these goods and thereby
reducing fraud.
The stunning ascent in bitcoin’s price in 2017 has helped pave
the way for the use of the cryptocurrency and the blockchain
technology on which it is based for a number of business purposes,
among the most promising being the processing of payments where the
transparency and efficiency of the technology improves existing
practices. Given the hurdles to conducting cannabis transactions
through traditional banking networks, this industry is among the
most prominent targets for the use of bitcoin in this manner. The
companies mentioned above are all positioned to play a major role
in the developing trend of blockchain and cryptocurrency-based
payment solutions, making them worthy of further investigation by
investors looking to capitalize on the disruptive power of
cryptocurrencies and the technology behind them.
For more information on SinglePoint, visit:
SinglePoint,
Inc. (SING)
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