CannaDAO Launches World’s 1st Decentralized, Member-Governed Platform for Cannabis Industry

Even as the vast majority of the world is excluded from the benefits of the legal cannabis industry despite significant legal breakthroughs in the past decades CannaDAO today announced the launch of its platform for cannabis growing and operations in a bid to disrupt, destigmatize and decentralize a trillion-dollar industry.

"The community can now disrupt, destigmatize and decentralize a trillion-dollar industry," said Eric Benz, CannaDAO Contributor and former CEO of Changelly, and serial entrepreneur. "The days of targeting stoner culture are no longer and the time to redefine what cannabis means and represents is now. The future of finance is green"
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The DAO launch is slated for April 20 and will be powered by the Aurora cross-chain bridge running on the NEAR protocol. The DAO will allow the community to participate and earn rewards from real-world operations within the cannabis industry.

Contributors to the project are projecting a $100M Total Value Locked (TVL) in the next 6 to 18 months. In addition to Eric Benz, they include Jon Matonis, Founding Director at the Bitcoin Foundation, and Nicholas Gregory, CEO of CommerceBlock.

Following long struggles for cannabis rights, both in recreational and medical use,
Significant breakthroughs resulted in increased tolerance and legalization across the world, however, even in countries where the cannabis industry is legal, stringent rules, high costs make it difficult to participate in growing operations.

“The hard-fought legal battles around cannabis rights have resulted in significant breakthroughs and increased tolerance around the world,” Benz said. “But the vast majority of the world is still excluded from the benefits of the legal cannabis industry, whether consumers, growers, or businesses. CannaDAO removes the hurdles for so many who want to participate in this blooming economy while at the same time having a strong social impact.”

With a series of NFT releases as well as a P2E game, CannaFarm will launch on March 7 on Aurora. Users will be able to participate in a truly decentralized and gamified governance model. The DAO will drop on April 20 with the governance token ($CANNA) available on Ref.finance.

The governance token $CANNA plays a key role as a utility token allowing members of the CannaDAO to participate in project governance, including the proposal of new cannabis growing opportunities, voting on submitted proposals and funding approvals, and participating in grow operations harvesting yield through token staking. $CANNA will include governance utility interacting within the CannaDAO ecosystem with proposal submissions, voting mechanisms, membership with prestige levels, payment modules for cannabis-related services on and off-chain, transaction visibility, and accountability.

NEAR Protocol Launches Its 1st India Accelerator To Strengthen the Blockchain Startup Ecosystem in India

New Delhi, May 4, 2021: NEAR, an open-source platform aimed at accelerating the development of decentralized applications, today announced the launch of their first India focussed NEAR India Accelerator program. Woodstock Fund, a DLT- focussed multi-asset investment Fund, and Fracton Ventures, a prominent Web3.0 focused Japanese investment and development platform, have joined the accelerator as Investment partners and Go-to-Market access Partners respectively. The NEAR India Accelerator aims to nurture and identify upcoming Indian startups that want to innovate in the blockchain space, build impactful products that solve real-world problems, and strengthen India’s blockchain prowess in the global ecosystem. Through the accelerator, NEAR Foundation and Woodstock Fund will cumulatively offer up to $200k in funding along with mentorship from global experts in the blockchain and startup space, go-to-market access to the NEAR and Woodstock Fund’s expansive ecosystem along with marketing support to innovative startups with impactful solutions built on the NEAR protocol for real-world problems. Fracton Ventures will provide Go-to-Market support in Japan and will open up opportunities for the participating startups in the Japanese blockchain and investment ecosystem.

NEAR is a decentralized development platform that is built on NEAR Protocol, a public, sharded, developer-friendly, proof-of-stake blockchain. It is a highly scalable, cost-effective platform for developers to build decentralized applications on. This platform is specially designed to provide a decentralized, ubiquitous ground floor for other developers to build their applications on. Through its India accelerator, NEAR has decided to open up its expertise and provide support to the creative minds in the Indian tech startup ecosystem.

Spanning three months, the accelerator program is open to creators, innovators, startups, and developers from all over India working on projects that are past the proof-of-concept phase to build unique and creative products utilizing digital assets and blockchain technology. The NEAR India Accelerator will be interspersed with meetups before the closure of registrations which will be followed by a two-week-long boot camp for selected registrants. The startups that make it through a boot camp will be invited to pitch at the demo day for up to $100k in funding. The inaugural meetups of the NEAR India Accelerator will be directed towards providing adequate support, mentorship, and knowledge to help the participants build their business solutions on the NEAR platform. The Accelerator will focus on startups with cutting-edge ideas, relevant blockchain use cases, and a committed team.

“NEAR is first and foremost a community for entrepreneurs and creators, and the startup ecosystem in India has quickly become a leading source of blockchain innovation and entrepreneurship. I have no doubt that some of the leading ideas and transformations across industries will emerge from India in the years to come, so launching the NEAR India Accelerator program was the obvious choice for our community. India’s startup ecosystem is already solving some of the most critical issues facing the country today, and with this accelerator program, we aim to highlight these efforts and empower up-and-coming entrepreneurs to bring new ideas to life and to propel India forward as a powerhouse in global blockchain-led innovation, said Erik Trautman, CEO of NEAR Foundation."

The accelerator program is launched in partnership with Lumos Labs, an innovation management firm specializing in running technology open innovation programs in India. The entries will be judged by a distinguished panel of industry leaders and subject matter experts on three primary aspects of problem selection, solution innovation, and impact achieved. The registration window will be open from May 4 - June 20, 2021, which will be followed by 3 rounds of filtration with 50 teams shortlisted in the first cohort, 15 teams in the second, and finally five teams in the final cohort that will present their solutions in the Final Demo Day.

If you have an interesting Blockchain Use case and are excited to apply for the NEAR India Accelerator Program, Click here!

To learn more about NEAR Protocol, feel free to visit- https://near.org/