Cannabis Gaming Site Launches Cryptocurrency IDO
What started out as a simple game for teaching people how to grow marijuana has turned into a digital currency that’s piggybacking on the worldwide crypto boom.
Grow.House, a free online Farmville-like game that brands itself as a platform for lovers of crypto, cannabis and decentralized finance, launched the initial dex offering of its $GROW token on Tuesday. The token began trading on popular crypto exchange site Pancake Swap in the early afternoon for a starting listed price of $0.10 per token.
“Most people have played a game similar to the one that we offer,” said Branden Hampton, the founder and CEO of Grow.House. “Whether you’re a millennial and you played the Sims when you were little, or today’s Clash of Clans gamers, it’s a world that allows you to build and develop characters and ecosystems. You can continue improving upon those ecosystems and there’s an in-game currency―whether it’s diamonds, jewels, gems, or coins.
Grow.House players can earn the new $GROW tokens by planting and nurturing digital cannabis in the game. In a nutshell, growing more marijuana means earning more coins. Hampton contends that incentivizing people to learn about yield farming through the game will result in a larger number of real-life cannabis growers capable of growing quality marijuana.
Hampton said he designed Grow.House for even novices with no background of growing the plant to enjoy and learn from. The game aims to implement the fun of Facebook’s Farmville game with modern agricultural techniques that let players have fun while earning cryptocurrency.
“We recognize some people are crypto natives, and understand crypto, but don’t understand cannabis,” Hampton said. “There’s similarly cannabis natives who understand cannabis, but don’t understand crypto.”
The company’s way of launching its token is also new. An initial dex offering, or IDO, is one of a handful of decentralized crowdfunding platforms that targets fundraising in the crypto space.
IDOs allow businesses to engage their clientele in an economy that builds their products and services while allowing them to also walk away with assets.
In the same way that traditional startups receive venture capital before launching, companies issuing IDOs raise financing from individual investors, according to crypto data site CoinMarketCap. But unlike in an initial public offering, investors in IDOs never own any equity in the business.
