‘Smoke Weed and Earn Bitcoin’ With This Vape Pen in Our Increasingly Dystopian Nightmare

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GoodTrip is a cannabis vape pen from blockchain hardware maker PuffPaw brokerage Its ability to allow consumers to earn Bitcoin while smoking marijuana. Each individual vape pen product from the company has $2-3 worth of Bitcoin associated with it, which can be redeemed via QR code or NFC connection within the company’s respective mobile app. While GoodTrip has been criticized for effectively gamifying smoking marijuana, they claim there is no direct reward for hitting a vape pen and appear to have changed the language on their website that previously claimed “Each hit earns crypto.”

Currently, GoodTrip’s vape pens are only sold in California, where recreational cannabis is legal. Shoppers activate the pen by scanning a QR code or tapping it via NFC and connecting it to the GoodTrip app, which unlocks a Bitcoin reward in the form of an upfront loyalty payment. The app then tracks usage for a few seconds and displays the data as a purely personal awareness feature, much like a step counter or sleep tracker on a fitness device. Users can check in daily to build streaks that promote non-monetary virtual points given in the app, but according to GoodTrip, those points exist only for record keeping inside the app and cannot be redeemed for cash, products, or anything else of value. PuffPaw describes GoodTrip as the creation of a user-powered network that blends cannabis, Bitcoin, and artificial intelligence.

GoodTrip has opted to use Bitcoin for its crypto rewards program instead of creating its own crypto token out of thin air. Over the past few years many marketing gimmicks around crypto rewards have been tried by many businesses, including the marijuana industry, which have proven to be nothing more than pump and dump schemes. Perhaps the most infamous crossover between the crypto and marijuana industries was Potcoin. Dennis Rodman infamously traveled to North Korea Sponsored by marijuana-themed altcoin. Shortly after Rodman’s arrival in Pyongyang on June 13, 2017, the promotion led to an immediate price surge, with the coin jumping nearly 97% to over $0.18, increasing its market capitalization to close to $40 million. However, after Potcoin reached an all-time high of approximately $0.51 in late 2017, its value has declined by more than 99% and is now trading at around $0.0008.

With all that said, reporting from DL News has indicated that PuffPaw at one point explicitly told customers that a token would be launched in the future. Now deleted post on X. Additionally, reward points in crypto-related apps often convert into crypto tokens with actual monetary value. from previous reporting protos It also points out that GoodTrip had previously said that rewards would be offered through a token called VAPE.

GoodTrip has also faced some backlash due to its alleged simplification of vaping (a characterization the company explicitly rejects). Health researchers raise specific concerns DL News After reviewing the marketing of the product. Joshua Gowin, an associate professor who studies chronic cannabis use, said making cannabis use gambling certainly sounds like it has a habit-forming goal. Jana Cousin, who leads the Neuroscience of Addiction Lab at Erasmus University Rotterdam, called it potentially a very dangerous and unethical tool that could stimulate the development of addiction. Other experts warned that the incentives associated with frequent use could impair health decisions and increase risks such as anxiety, memory problems and respiratory effects.

In response, Refo Tse, founder of GoodTrip, posted on To correct what he called factual errors in media coverage. Tse wrote that the product only records puff-seconds for user awareness and there is no financial reward of any kind associated with consumption. He stressed that Bitcoin loyalty payments are issued to each customer in advance and are not scaled, gated or tied to level, frequency or duration of usage. Tse said, “We believe that an adult in the legal market who has visibility into their consumption is in a better position to avoid problematic use than someone who does not.”

Simplification of everything is becoming a concern of many people, and crypto often plays a vital role in this trend of turning the entire world into one big casino. A recent example of this is TuyoA DeFi-powered Visa debit card that runs on crypto and includes a “buy now, pay maybe” feature that waives fees on selected purchases through an unknown algorithm. The system treats general spending as a game of chance, with critics describing it as an engineered addiction that preys on the same psychological triggers found in casinos and loot boxes.

Prediction markets have conducted similar investigations. Platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket allow betting on real-world events, including elections, but report shows Campaign staffers have used non-public internal polling data to conduct profitable trading Before the information reached the people. There is also an American soldier facing federal charges Related to prediction market trading around the capture of Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela. These prediction market platforms have suspended users for suspected insider activity and are increasingly cooperating with law enforcement, but regulators and lawmakers continue to highlight the uneven playing field that favors those with insider information.

GoodTrip itself also includes the ability to transfer respected Bitcoins to other more speculative, AI-guided investments such as decentralized finance (DeFi) and prediction markets. “Users can choose to allocate eligible rewards across open-source AI agent tools that explore opportunities in DeFi (decentralized-finance), GoodTrip-native incentives, prediction markets, and selected RWA (real-world asset) strategies,” the website claims.





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