It is more than digital art. At the intersection of the metaverse virtual realm and cannabis, CampNova and The Crypto Cannabis Club (CCC), are exploring different ways to see and use art through NFTs by minting unique and non-fungible assets intertwined with weed.
The allure — it’s more than a digital bag of weed. Set to formally launch at the beginning of 2022, cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin, can go on a crazed cannabis shopping spree as CCC and CampNova are on the verge of breaking the fourth wall of the Metaverse.
By expanding its community into CampNova’s lifestyle, technological, e-commerce, and marketing platform, CCC is launching its cannabis brand, Crypto Cannabis Club Cannabis. The brand launch is a physical integration of characters and cannabis strains that open the blockchain space into physical versions of NFTs and a new experience that hasn’t quite been defined in the space.
“We have a special NFT cannabis strain so unique that when you smoke it, it digitally enhances your brain,” joked co-founder of CampNova Emery Morrison.
“It allows you to experience [with your five senses] what is going on in NFTs and cannabis,” Morrison said.
Verified Stains
The launch taps into an aspect of NFTs that will turn digital cannabis strains into digital certificates of ownership that can be bought physically and sold along with the artwork. According to Ryan Hunter, an advisor at CCC, a bulk of the NFT owners in the CCC community are already cannabis consumers buying products on a weekly or monthly basis and spending more than $150 per store visit.
“The exciting aspect of all of this is to tie the blockchain to physical items,” said Hunter.
Furthermore, Hunter pointed out there is already a community curating cannabis NFT art collections similar to the IRL cannabis community seeking premier cannabis products.
Know Your Nugs
By merging the NFTs into the cannabis space, the experience segues beyond the traditional smoke sesh. Morrison said it allows the NFT blockchain investors to connect with the story and content of the digitally-inspired cannabis art and IRL cannabis strains.
“We’re adding physical products to NFTs because, unfortunately, you can’t smoke the virtual NFT,’’ said co-founder and CEO of CCC Kevin Fitzpatrick.
Fitzpatrick explained that attaching the physical products in the latest NFT partnership makes the NFTs “redeemable” outside of the Metaverse which allows the owner of the NFT to buy CCC’s Crypto Cannabis Club Cannabis brand through CampNova.
“We’re on the cusp of something big here,” Fitzpatrick said. “Think of it like a Willy Wonka golden ticket. It’s a new wave of thinking about what the possibilities are here. Even if it means hiding NFTs in packaging to take the NFTs to new potential blockchain investors [who also want to get high on their investments].”
So in actuality, one could smoke an NFT. The Crypto Cannabis Club Cannabis brand will offer a collection of weed products including hand-selected, premium, indoor-grown cannabis in eighth-ounce packages. Through its delivery partners like Yams, Hellapaxx, and Smoke On The Water, Morrison said CampNova makes the physical aspect of NFTs accessible to smokers available on CampNovaonline.com via same to next-day delivery throughout California and other legal states.
Hunter also explained another unique aspect of the CCC NFT, its owners get a 30% discount when they buy the Crypto Cannabis Club Cannabis brand. Fitzpatrick said he’s hopeful the discount can eventually increase to 100% for investors owning CCC NFTs, but that might be down the road.
Stepping beyond weed and art, Fitzpatrick also hinted at an app and tech project in the works expected to use the blockchain Metaverse to authenticate the real cannabis strains versus the counterfeit knockoffs. He said the project is intended to provide more authentic cannabis strains and NFTs harder to replicate or resell, while maintaining true and verifiable ownership.
“If you think about the illicit market and brand equity, there are a lot of brands,” Fitzpatrick said. “California has brands that have made a name for themselves in cannabis to the point where now people are knocking off their packaging by going to China and getting their packaging recreated and then sticking illicit-market cannabis in that packaging. There’s an opportunity here to tie in a radio-frequency identification to that package and verify through an app.”
Getting Into the Game
The NFT craze went up a few notches when Mike Winkelmann, a digital artist known as Beeple, sold an NFT for $69 million at the British auction house Christie’s. Celebrities like former pro wrestler John Cena and singer Shawn Mendes took note and also launched their own set of NFTs. During the 2021 edition of Art Basel Miami, the art world got an inside look at the best in blockchain technology and exclusive celebrity NFTs. And while it may seem that every celebrity has a weed brand on the west coast, not all have quite settled in the NFT space.
The Queen Bee, Lil’ Kim, stepped into the cannabis space in October 2021. She announced during MJBizCon that she would launch Aphrodesiak cannabis brand with superbad, inc., and CampNova in 2022. Her announcement was just the first step into the cannabis space as she’s currently steering her brand into the NFT blockchain.
The Grammy-Award winning “Lady Marmalade” rapper explained that integrating her physical cannabis products — featuring flower, prerolls, and erotic THC infused oils, with NFTs creates one-of-a-kind digital access to authentic collectibles with artwork and visual experiences she wouldn’t normally release. The authenticity of cannabis NFTs, provides a space separate from music, memorabilia, or Lil’ Kim posters that fans would do anything for.
“Linking Aphrodesiak to blockchain and NFTs will provide my fans a rare smoke of high-quality cannabis strains I like,” she said. “There are also exclusive experiences created and curated by me and my team.”
“With NFTs, Lil’ Kim is finally able to connect with bidders vying for digital content exclusive from her,” Morrison said. “In the process, this makes her creative work and cannabis brand irreplaceable and unique.” ϖ