We all know I am always working on a lot of things but, this is me working on my thing. I had an idea that is going to bring together three of my passion areas and I'm super excited to kick it off. Cash'd is a marriage of data science, cannabis, and blockchain and I can't wait for you to see it! Right now we have a project name, a Gmail address, a domain, a logo, and a Notion road map. This is my first time building something like this but, I'm going to do my best to do it an organized fashion and as in-public as possible.
I am about to share my goals for my first sprint but, I feel like I need to make a disclaimer here. My timelines may seem excessively long for this first batch in a world of MVP's and ship early and iterate often culture. This first timeline is the way it is because I am working on multiple hackathons this month as well as continuing to work my way through the Codecademy Pro Data Analyst career path. I'm also working out ways to contribute more to Developer DAO (which may be the coolest tech thing I've been involved in ever). So yeah, I gave myself plenty of time to knock this first batch out. Maybe I'll catch on fire and knock my goals out early. We shall see!
What is Cash'd?
The world of legalized cannabis is seeing explosive growth across the United States as more states legalize medical and recreational consumption. Many activists in the space believe federal legalization can't be far behind. All of this growth has plenty of consumers purchasing new products from new sources in a way never experienced prior to legalization. The days of pulling up in front of Trevor's house and hoping to pick up whatever was on hand are over. Disclaimer: I deny ever buying drugs from anyone named Trevor. Also, if you are a Trevor, sorry for disparaging your good name. Today, you can walk into a dispensary in legal consumption areas and be greeted by a bank of glass cases displaying a dizzying array of cannabis products. Depending on where you are in your cannabis journey, there may even be things there you didn't even know existed!
As a Midwest nomad, who has now experienced the cannabis dispensary scene in Nevada, California, and Oregon; this cornucopia is both a blessing and a curse. I can't begin to tell you how many times my wife and I have conversations like "What about that Sativa cartridge we bought last month? The one that was super smooth and didn't make me too antsy? Which strain was that? Where did we buy it?" Sometimes we remember and can trace our steps back to recreate that cannabis experience. A lot of times we don't and it's a guessing game of trying to find that same effect from a different product. Some of those forgotten products are lost to us forever. (RIP Durban Poison vape from Las Vegas. We think about you all the time. Hope you miss us like we do you)
Cash'd is ready to solve this problem via an online tasting journal for cannabis users from connoisseurs to newcomers. We will be your online home for recording information about your favorite products and dispensaries to create a customized, searchable database you can leverage to know which products you can skip and which you don't want to miss on your next shopping trip. Track your favorite products, which dispensary you definitely want to visit next Wednesday because that's when their edibles are discounted, and the name of that Indica strain that was all calm vibes without too much couch lock. With wide adoption, we hope to create a database of cannabis products and dispensaries with related rating and purchase data. I am committed to making an aggregated, anonymous version of this data publicly available via blockchain for the benefit of the cannabis industry and its consumers. I'm still trying to work out how that will take shape but, I'm thinking perhaps some data of data analysis with the findings documents posted to chain. Final form TBD.
Sprint 1
Now, the Sprint 1 nitty gritty. This sprint will run for two weeks (11/6/21-11/20/21). Goals for sprint 1 are as follows:
- Name the app (done)
- Register domain (done)
- Create email address (done)
- Write app requirements (in progress)
- Branding (in progress)
- Determine the dev/tech stack (in progress)
- Design the landing page (in progress)
Out of all of these, the tech stack is the biggest head scratcher for me. I want to code the back end in Python. I need to determine what I will use for a database, and what I want to use for a front end. What tools will I need to make the parts talk to each other? I will be exploring these options over the coming days to come up with a stack that will get the job done and that I can actually work with. I know the right combo is out there!
So, yeah, welcome to Cash'd. Looking forward to building and growing with everyone. True to my nature, I will be building in public as much as possible which will include blog updates, GitHub repo updates, and what will probably be an excessive amount of Tweets. LFG!!!
Like that header image? I snagged it from Images for Writers where you can use your writing to search for useable images!