Financial failure does not phase Maximillian White. He’s seen it quite a bit, twice in his own career and once in his father’s. However, his personal reaction when his business lost $39 million in the Cypriot banking collapse was to use his remaining money to purchase a Rolls Royce and drive it about in public.
“I’m a proud man. I didn’t want people to think I was lost. I may also be a poser,” he says but in reality, he is a grifter and not afraid of failing. He knew he was going to be an entrepreneur while still in primary school. When asked to dress up as the man he was going to be, he did not arrive at his classroom as a fireman or a policeman, instead he opted for an entrepreneur, arriving in a sheepskin jacket and cloth swag bag from the bank.
Prior to creating his property empire based in Dubai, he was a successful music producer. He pioneered streaming services and worked with some of the biggest names in the business. He attributes his success to his early life, singing as a chorister in Durham Cathedral and never having a day off, including singing on Christmas Day. He also has ADHD which he reckons allows him to have an eclectic taste in music, from classical to UK funk and hip hop.
His keen interest in property was influenced by the loss of the family home as a child. He sees Dubai as a great investment and is busy building an empire that can offer him a passive income, but now he is turning his attention to a new venture that will not only create sizable returns for him personally but also create 5000 new millionaires.
It’s weed.
Aided by old time friend and digital genius Ricardo Capone, he has turned his sights on the cannabis industry but with an angle. Of course, there is an angle. White has teamed up his cannabis product with blockchain technology and NFTs, providing the ultimate traceability engine for his quality plants.
Initially White had invested in medicinal cannabis, creating a 40-hectare medicinal cannabis company in Portugal, employing a master grower winning 46 global trophies. “It’s the equivalent to having Oscars in the Film world.”
Now he is turning his attention to recreational cannabis which is conservatively estimated to be worth $200 billion a year. In his medicinal cannabis work, White and his team use technology for more than just traceability. They also use genome sequencing software to analyze human DNA and then match the human with the best-suited cannabinoid plant grown on the farm. Each cannabis seed has unique attributes, in the same way humans have unique DNA. This level of granularity is not available in mainstream pharmaceutical products which tend to ship a one size fits all product.
There is a lot to unpack in this new business. Firstly, it is called Dr Green NFT.
He is using NFTs as smart contracts, a unique digital asset that will be used to gatekeep his new distribution business. A total of 5,145 NFTs will be minted and sold in June, each costing $10,000, but he believes they will swiftly grow in value. There will be a secondary market for the NFTs on his platform but also on NFT sites such as Opensea.
Each NFT has been designed by a world famous artist and every one is a unique one of a kind – not just traits as is often done in collections.
The utility of the NFTs is to present the holders access to the decentralized DrGreen app where they are encouraged to build a community to which they can sell the cannabis. DrGreen will handle the financial due diligence or Know Your Customer (KYC) of the clients, ensuring that recreational cannabis will only be sold into regions where it is legal. DrGreen will also drop ship the product, accepting payment from clients either in fiat or crypto, and remitting the difference between wholesale and retail prices to the NFT holders. They will be paid in Ethereum.
The ability to sequence the plants and then put them on the blockchain, means that DrGreen has solved one of the biggest issues in selling cannabis, especially in the recreational space, that of spoofing. Spoofing, as it sounds, is where black market cannabis enters the legal supply chain. This can cause huge headaches in a number of ways, but most worryingly in the addition of dangerous items, such as pesticides, fiberglass or even other drugs such as fentanyl.
DrGreen can track its plants from seed to finished plant, via nursery, mothering rooms, flowering rooms, drying, trimming and packaging areas. Data collected can range from how much water was used, how many humans touched the plant, to the humidity of the room.
With ten countries already having legalized cannabis for recreational use and many more considering changing the law, the fact that DrGreen can prove the product and remove spoofing will be very attractive.
“We’ve done the hard work, we have the licenses, we work with governments and that took millions to set up. Holders of the NFT can start earning asap and I am going to make millionaires out of those 5000 entrepreneurs.
DrGreen is already signing up major partners, many of whom hail from the music industry thanks to White’s music career. Musicians include Tony Yayo of G-Unit in the states. Other partners include users of cannabis for medical reasons including professional UK boxer and women’s boxing champion Shannon Courtney. Another partnership is with Jacob & Co, the luxury watch makers to create bespoke time pieces they are calling ‘The Doctor Green Edition’
There will also be 29 ambassadors, A listers, that will have their own white label strains developed by DrGreen. Now that sounds more interesting than creating a perfume.
