Discrimination against the cannabis industry in payment transactions

The cannabis industry faces significant challenges in the area of payment transactions, which massively restrict its business activities. Despite increasing legalization and social acceptance, the industry continues to be discriminated against by many established financial service providers1.

Exclusion of common payment providers

Numerous renowned payment providers such as Stripe and Mollie refuse their services to cannabis companies due to restrictive terms and conditions. This leads to a significant disadvantage compared to other industries1.

High costs due to specialized providers

Although there are some payment service providers that specialize in high-risk sectors, their conditions are often prohibitively expensive:

  • High monthly basic fees
  • Transaction fees of 3-5% of the gross amount

These additional costs put further pressure on cannabis companies’ margins, which are already under pressure1.

Limited payment options for customers

The exclusion of common payment methods such as PayPal, Google Pay, Apple Pay, Klarna or credit cards represents a serious competitive disadvantage, which is why we are forced to switch to less customer-friendly alternatives:

  • SEPA credit transfers
  • Direct debit

These methods lead to delays in the payment flow of up to 5 days, which is extremely problematic for modern e-commerce business models.

Bitcoin as a solution to discrimination

The implementation of Bitcoin payments via our own BTCPay server offers us a promising alternative to circumvent discrimination in payment transactions:

  1. Independence from traditional financial service providers
  2. Low transaction fees
  3. Fast payment processing
  4. Global availability
  5. Increased financial privacy for customers

The planned integration of the Lightning Network will further increase the efficiency of Bitcoin payments through even lower fees and near-instant transactions. By using Bitcoin, cannabis companies can overcome the existing discrimination in payment transactions and offer their customers a modern, cost-effective and fast payment method. This not only strengthens the industry’s competitiveness, but also promotes its financial independence and innovative strength.

to the Bitcoin Whitepaper