UPUSD Now Available To Pay Sales Tax for Cannabis
Berkeley City Councilmember Becomes First in the Nation To Purchase Cannabis with Crypto
Earlier this week on Tuesday September 10th, history was made in the San Francisco Bay Area as Berkeley City Councilmember Ben Bartlett became the first elected official in the USA to make cannabis purchase entirely with cryptocurrency. This marks the first time a purchase has been made for cannabis through cryptocurrency, including the taxes paid out.
This event marks a special occasion for the Universal Protocol Alliance, as the cryptocurrency used to settle with the merchant to pay for city and state cannabis tax was the Universal Dollar (UPUSD).
The transaction took place at Ohana Cannabis, a dispensary located in the Emeryville neighborhood of Berkeley, and was facilitated by UP alliance founding member Cred and the Blockchain Advocacy Coalition. The customer purchased the cannabis product with Bitcoin Cash (BCH). The software that Ohana used for this transaction utilized Cred’s LBA token, which automatically settled the state and local cannabis levy with Universal Dollars. The final transaction took a few seconds to complete, and resulted in significantly lower transaction costs than normal fees.
“We are thrilled to build technology that solves real problems for customers, merchants, and politicians which will help usher in the next 100 million users of crypto,” said Dan Schatt, Co-founder of Cred and the Universal Protocol Alliance.” Not only does crypto result in significant cost reduction for consumers and merchants, but it also enables highly productive tax collection, transparency, and predictability for city and state governments.”
Now that the Universal Dollar has been successfully deployed as a tax payment to a vendor, the next step is to get the state of California to accept stablecoins to settle cannabis tax remittances from vendors. This will be accomplished through the passing of AB 953 (Ting) which is currently in committee in the California State Assembly.
“By providing a cash-free method of cannabis tax collections, AB 953 can reduce costs and safety risks for cities and businesses,” said Councilmember Bartlett. He also added that “the Green Rush is a 21st-century industry; it deserves a 21st-century legislation. Tax collections leveraging stablecoin technology will help bring this new industry into the light.”
The Universal Dollar has now proven in a real world example that it is a stablecoin that municipal governments can cooperate and function with. For an industry like the cannabis industry — which has been historically tied to a cash economy — opening the doors to stablecoins and cryptocurrency will allow for the industry to become more regulated, and efficient for tax purposes.
