Financial failure doesn’t phase medical marijuana millionaire and entrepreneur Maximilian White.
Europe’s richest legal cannabis tycoon has had his fair share of misfortunes – twice in his own career and once in his father’s. But when his business suffered a loss of $29 million due to the Cyprus bank collapse in 2012, his personal reaction was a little unusual.
Instead of spending all his remaining money, he blew it on buying a Rolls-Royce, which he drove publicly.
“I am a proud person. I didn’t want people to think I was lost,” he says. “I can be a poser too.” In reality, he is a hard worker who is not afraid of failure.
Like many of his generation, White is now embracing blockchain, along with the unique use cases of NFTs, as part of his business.
He says that like a cocktail, the whole is better than the sum of its parts.
“For example, the Manhattan cocktail is a mix of whiskey, sweet vermouth and bitters. It’s a combination that makes it great. To me, it’s a combination of cannabis, blockchain, and cryptocurrency. You can’t go wrong.”
Who is Maximilian White?
White’s first career was in music production, which included working with Drake on the track that led to his hit song “One Dance.” He also made millions by building and selling a music streaming service called Beatport.
His love with Portugal led him to create a beach club called Blanco Beach, which Rio Ferdinand frequented and where Tyga, Tory Lanez, Roger Sanchez, Rick Ross and French Montana gave top performances. It has since been closed.
White also has ADHD, which he believes may account for his diverse musical tastes, from classical to British funk to hip-hop.
He said he knew he would be a business builder when he was in elementary school. When he was asked to dress like the man he would become, he did not arrive in class looking like a firefighter or a police officer. Instead, he chose to dress like an entrepreneur, wearing a sheepskin jacket and carrying a classic fabric-trimmed bag.
He credits his work ethic to his childhood, where he never took a day off, including singing in the choir at Durham Cathedral and singing at Christmas.
He made most of his fortune selling medicinal marijuana to wholesalers around the world and establishing a 40-hectare farm in Portugal, the largest in Europe. He somehow secured several government partnerships in previously unexplored areas.
He expanded into properties in Dubai, Mallorca and Eastern Europe, and said his interest was sparked by losing his home as a child. His father lost everything, and they had to move into a shared home. He has since experienced an even greater personal tragedy in the public eye when his older brother was killed in a violent altercation at a Dubai nightclub in 2022.
Legal Marijuana and Cryptocurrency
Many people who grew up with restrictive marijuana laws may feel uncomfortable with legalized cannabis, but in recent years, laws around the world have become increasingly liberal.
Read more: How Silk Road turned postmen into dealers
Medical marijuana is now legal in more than 50 countries, and nine countries, including Canada, Germany, South Africa, and Thailand, have legalized recreational use. Ironically, despite the Netherlands’ reputation, weed, although permitted, is not technically legal.
In 2021, White told Ladbible about his plans to develop a cannabis industry cryptocurrency called MEDI. That token was never released. Instead, he struggled to build a medical marijuana business. But three years later he revised the plan and revamped it into something new.
White enlisted the help of longtime friend and digital marketer Ricardo Capone, who now serves as chief technology officer, to combine his cannabis products with NFTs to provide a blockchain tracking engine for his plants.
White said that when he first encountered NFTs, he did not view them as valuable works of art. Even though Beeple’s $69 million NFT sale dominated the news, White wasn’t excited about artist sales or royalties.
“But I immediately got smart contracts and that excited me. I could see future business uses that would reduce the need for lawyers. People can use smart contracts to buy cars or real estate, or sell businesses with complete transparency. Smart contracts allow us to explore this field further.”
NFT that represents business
But White isn’t sure the term has a good reputation anymore. Given that he already sells recreational cannabis, he’s a bit wary of doubling down on it by combining it with the term “NFT.”
“People have lost a lot of money investing in NFTs, digital art in general, but the technology excites me. So I think we have a responsibility to educate people about these real assets, digital assets, and what they can do. It’s not just about turning art upside down.
“Again, I brought it back to business use,” he says, explaining how NFTs, unique tokens, can represent a tiny fraction of a real-world asset. “For example, today people can purchase real estate using NFTs as proof of ownership. “If you can’t afford to buy the whole house, you can buy part of it, and later you can sell that NFT for a profit and put it into your next house.”
His latest cryptocurrency-related project is called Dr Green, where NFTs are used as part of a distribution business, or what he calls “a unique business path for people.” A total of 5,145 unique NFTs will provide holders with access to the Dr Green DApp, allowing them to build a cannabis retail community. There are also plans to release a platinum NFT that connects celebrities who love cannabis to create their own strains.
DApps require KYCing customers to ensure products are only sold in legal territories. Payment is made in fiat or cryptocurrency, and the seller’s markup is paid in Ethereum.DrGreen then ships the product.
Tracking Weed Supply Chain on Blockchain
White said blockchain traceability proves the quality of their products and that the company has invested millions of dollars in “cannabis farms, processing plants and R&D facilities.”
“We have invested significant money in developing one of the most sophisticated medical cannabis businesses. By putting your recreational business on the blockchain, you can use technology to track everything, make sure you’re compliant with all laws, and also serve as a hub for decentralized entrepreneurs.”
Simply put, an NFT is similar to a license to run a business connected to his distribution network and can be traded with others if necessary. The value of an NFT increases depending on how many customers it represents. Some will see this as a smart business move mixing technology and entrepreneurship, while others will undoubtedly see it as morally bankrupt and corrupting our youth. But times are changing.
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“Our NFTs act like digital keys or physical assets that can be linked to a company’s already running systems.”
Interested in cryptocurrency but still cautious
Despite his interest in blockchain, he is cautious about the hype surrounding cryptocurrencies as a financial instrument and believes there is an inherent flaw in the way they are valued against the dollar.
“How can cryptocurrency be decentralized if its price is always measured against real money? “The dollar will never be decentralized, and I think that’s a dangerous precedent.”
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Jillian Godsil
Jillian Godsil is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and author. She brought changes to Ireland’s election law in 2014, following a constitutional challenge in the Irish Supreme Court. She is a former candidate for the European Parliament and advocates for diversity, women in blockchain, and homelessness.