Cannacoin: A Layer-1 Scrypt PoS Blockchain for Cannabis Investment and Commerce

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What is Cannacoin™?

Cannacoin™ is a Layer-1 blockchain protocol designed to serve the global cannabis industry’s financial and commercial needs. Launched on 28 March 2014 via NWGT.org as a fork of Litecoin, it addressed the banking exclusion caused by cannabis’s Schedule I status in the U.S. (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2017). Initially using a Proof of Work (PoW) consensus with the Scrypt algorithm, it transitioned to Proof of Stake (PoS) on 9 December 2014 at block 370,000 to improve energy efficiency (King and Nadal, 2012). With a total supply of 13,140,000 coins—4,625,000 mined during PoW—it offers a 2% annual staking yield, avoiding pre-mining or ICOs for fairness (Cannacoin Community Foundation, 2025).

I. Smoke by Cannacoin™: Advancing the Vision

Introduced in April 2025, Smoke by Cannacoin™ is a peer-to-peer digital cash system built on Cannacoin™ infrastructure. Developed via WalletBuilders.com using Blackcoin 13.2.0, it employs a hybrid PoW/PoS model with Scrypt, featuring a 420,000,069-coin supply and a 5% premine (21,000,003 coins) for development and promotion (Cannacoin Community Foundation, 2025). With 1-minute block times, PoW ends at block 2,102,400, shifting to PoS. Future plans include cannabis-collateralized lending and NFT tracking, though these are undeveloped as of March 2025 (Tapscott and Tapscott, 2016).

System	Launch Date	Total Supply	Consensus Mechanism	Key Features
Cannacoin™	28 March 2014	13,140,000 coins	PoW (initial), PoS (current)	2% staking yield, no premine
Smoke by Cannacoin™	April 2025	420,000,069 coins	Hybrid PoW/PoS	Lending, NFT tracking (proposed)

Why Was Cannacoin™ Created?

Cannacoin™ emerged to tackle banking restrictions in the U.S. cannabis industry, where federal Schedule I classification persists despite state-level legalization in over 30 states by March 2025 (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2017). These restrictions stem from the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 (Bonnie and Whitebread, 1970). With cannabis’s medicinal use dating to 2700 BCE (Li, 1974), Cannacoin™ modernizes this legacy via blockchain, offering a decentralized financial solution. Smoke extends this with lending and NFT potential (Cannacoin Community Foundation, 2025).

How Does Cannacoin™ Work?

Cannacoin™ began with PoW using Scrypt, shifting to PoS at block 370,000 for efficiency (King and Nadal, 2012). Transactions are secured by digital signatures linked via hashes and public keys in an immutable blockchain (Nakamoto, 2008). Smoke uses hybrid PoW/PoS, with 1-minute blocks, 50-coin PoW rewards, and 21-coin PoS rewards, ending PoW at block 2,102,400 (Cannacoin Community Foundation, 2025). Proposed features like lending remain in planning (Tapscott and Tapscott, 2016).

Where Can I Acquire Cannacoin™ and Smoke?

Cannacoin™ is available via staking (2% yield) or exchanges like Pangolin DEX on Avalanche, potentially as an ERC20 token (Cannacoin Community Foundation, 2025). Smoke, launching April 2025, offers PoW mining until block 2,102,400, then PoS or exchange purchase. See cannacoin.org for details.

Who Are We?

The Cannacoin™ community, rooted in NWGT.org, includes growers, dispensaries, and tech advocates, led by the Cannacoin Community Foundation to innovate cannabis blockchain solutions (Cannacoin Community Foundation, 2025).

Our Mission

Cannacoin™ aims to provide a secure, transparent financial system for cannabis via DeFi and sustainable blockchain tech, extended by Smoke’s advanced features (Tapscott and Tapscott, 2016; Cannacoin Community Foundation, 2025).

Our Team

Subcreative and JamesonWA: Founding architects (resigned)
Tom Burkhardt (aka 8-bit): Since 2014; Assistant Director since 2019
Brent Kohler (aka deusopus): Initial developer; Project Director since 2019
In Gracious Memory of Phil Cohen (aka RebPhil): Lead Developer

Special Thanks and Acknowledgments

Thanks to Nakamoto, Lee, Buterin, and the Cannacoin Network, with special recognition to Phil Cohen (Cannacoin Community Foundation, 2025).

External Links

Countdown to Cannacoin Day

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References

Bonnie, R. and Whitebread, C., 1970. The Marihuana Conviction: A History of Marihuana Prohibition in the United States. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press.
Cannacoin Community Foundation, 2025. Cannacoin Official Website. [Online] Available at: https://www.cannacoin.org [Accessed 24 March 2025].
King, S. and Nadal, S., 2012. PPCoin: Peer-to-Peer Crypto-Currency with Proof-of-Stake. [Online] Available at: https://decred.org/research/king2012.pdf [Accessed 24 March 2025].
Li, H., 1974. ‘An Archaeological and Historical Account of Cannabis in China’, Economic Botany, 28(4), pp.437–448.
Nakamoto, S., 2008. Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. [Online] Available at: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf [Accessed 24 March 2025].
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2017. The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids: The Current State of Evidence and Recommendations for Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
Tapscott, D. and Tapscott, A., 2016. Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World. New York: Penguin Random House.