Page 38 - BusinessWest March 7, 2022

A Real “Game-changer”
Local Firm Solves the Riddle of Cannabis and Credit Cards
By Mark Morris
Since cannabis became legal in Massachusetts consumers have had to pay for their purchases
with cash or a debit card. At a dis- pensary in Southampton, that has changed in a big way.
Beginning Feb. 14, customers at Dreamer Cannabis have been able to use their credit cards to purchase can- nabis products.
“The ability to use a credit card makes purchasing cannabis more accessible to consumers.”
“The term ‘game-changer’ gets thrown around a lot, but for this industry that’s pretty huge,” said Kevin Perrier, a partner with Dreamer Cannabis.
Because cannabis is legal in only 18 states, federal law prohibits credit card
companies such as Visa, MasterCard, and American Express from accepting cannabis transactions in their systems.
Perrier and Volkan Polatol, his part- ner at Dreamer Cannabis, were explor- ing the idea of a cannabis delivery business when their research revealed an innovative way several cannabis companies in California were accept- ing payments by credit card.
“The method is similar to the way Venmo works,” Polatol said. Venmo
is the peer-to-peer payment app that allows individuals to quickly exchange money with each other.
While credit card companies will not process cannabis transactions, accepting payments from third-party platforms is legal and compliant. When a Dreamer customer uses a credit card, the transaction is pro- cessed by a third-party platform which uses blockchain technology through the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) to process the purchase. According
to its website, IPFS is a peer-to-peer network that uses blockchain to
make the web faster, safer, and more
Kevin Perrier, left, and Volkan Polatol, partners at Dreamer Cannabis, are now able to offer credit card transactions at their dispensary.
38 MARCH 7, 2022
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