TTTSF (.224):How Technology Is About to Transform the $150B Cannabis Market
Joao Peixe
Oilprice.comJuly 9, 2019
What’s the genius of Amazon? Simple: control of information.
Jeff Bezos turned a little online book store into one of the world’s most valuable corporate behemoths by applying technological solutions to complex problems—creating a model mirrored around the world.
Now, a little-known company is trying to duplicate that feat.
TruTrace Technologies (CSE:TTT; OTC:TTTSF) is helping other companies “Amazonify” their businesses— creating a niche in the tech world that has yet to be filled.
In other words, it has no competitors yet.
As any retail firm knows, distribution is essential—it can be the biggest source of additional costs and the perfect place to improve efficiency.
Inefficiency can be a killer—a study from 2012 showed that distribution centers lose 3000 hours a year to unproductive workflow.
Lack of control over information costs even more—large businesses lost $47 million per year to inefficiencies in data transfer.
For any business to compete with companies like Amazon it all comes down to distribution—finding the best ways to pair products and markets.
But few businesses have the resources--the talent, technology, and budget--to compete with Amazon.
That’s where TruTrace Technologies comes in.
The company has developed a unique platform to help companies cut costs, streamline marketing and distribution procedures, and eliminate inefficiency in the supply chain.
It’s all about finding the best tech to fit the problem—and TruTrace Technologies (CSE:TTT; OTC:TTTSF) has built a sturdy platform that covers an entire industry’s supply chain, from top to bottom.
Plus, the company’s working in an exciting, rapidly growing new industry—cannabis.
Cannabis produced $6 billion in deal values between 2015 and 2018.
Estimates peg the legal cannabis market at $66 billion by 2025.
But in reality, this tech could be applied to much bigger markets.
TruTrace Technologies (CSE:TTT; OTC:TTTSF) is breaking into cannabis, but it’s got the potential to take on much bigger markets—including retail groceries, which is currently dominated by big supermarket chains like Kroger Company ($105 billion) and H.E.B. ($21 billion).
Right now, it’s signed a new initiative with one of the biggest drug distributors in Canada—with more than 1200 brick-and-mortar stores.
The genius of TruTrace is simple—it’s taking tech solutions to the problems in supply chain.
And where other cannabis plays have focused on production—which firms have the most product, the lowest prices, the biggest chunk of market—TruTrace hopes to make a splash by tackling the issues surrounding the emergence of a new market—one that could be worth billions of dollars.
Why look at TruTrace? Here are a few reasons.
#1 From Top to Bottom
TruTrace doesn’t deal in products—it deals in information.
First, there’s the company’s indexing side:
TruTrace Technologies (CSE:TTT; OTC:TTTSF) has built an incredible platform, allowing firms and users throughout the supply chain to search through a vast database.
The indexing feature, which works through the company’s StrainSecure™ platform, allows any user to track a product from its origins to its destination—from development to production to transportation to retail.
This makes tracking the quality of products far easier. It also helps producers protect their IP—make sure no one else is duplicating their methods.
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And there’s real demand for TruTrace’s services in the cannabis sector, where control of information is key.
A lot of it comes down to regulation.
Right now, every jurisdiction manages cannabis a little differently. The legal market is tightly regulated.
In California, for instance, there’s the California Cannabis Portal—a system for tracking changes in regulatory patterns that could affect California’s pot market—which will be worth $5 billion by 2020.
It’s no secret that companies and customers love this kind of service—it makes managing risks much easier, it protects the IP of different strains, and it makes sure there’s a leveled playing field, cutting out the black market.
But TruTrace is going one step further…
#2 The Power of the Blockchain
A lot of the news around blockchain two years ago was hype connected to the Bitcoin bubble—but that doesn’t mean there isn’t an immense opportunity in using blockchain technology.
There are at least fifty industries blockchain could change—and TruTrace (CSE:TTT; OTC:TTTSF) is getting a head-start.
In 2018, the company created an elegant software platform for tracking the origins and quality of different cannabis strains.
Known as Blockstrain, the system has now been taken to the next level.
TruTrace’s new and improved platform, StrainSecure™, uses sophisticated security protocols to collate and manage a vast store of cannabis data—from strain info to regulatory measures to consumer protection.
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StrainSecure™ uses blockchain technology —a system for managing supply chains and cutting down on inefficiencies by allowing information to flow more freely through a network.
StrainSecure™ certifies and verifies all the information it collects, and protects it from tampering. The platform also serves regulators and customers by offering “genome to sale” breakdowns of every cannabis strain.
This protects IP while offering authorities and customers the chance to see exactly where each product originates, and what it can do.
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It’s a “plug in and play” system, allowing users and firms to join the chain, which uses a linked network of users to ensure security of information, harnessing the computing power of every member to improve the strength of the system.
But that’s not all.
#3 Total Verification, Total Distribution
The StrainSecure platform provides all the information necessary for total verification of products passing through the supply chain.
That’s important for producers who want to protect their IP—particularly in the cannabis world where tracking a product’s origin point is crucially important to carving out a market share and warding off copy-cats.
StrainSecure offers visibility of key information—where each strain was developed, what each one does, possible uses, etc.—but also offers total transparency allowing for total verification.
But the StrainSecure formula also works to cut down the costs of distribution.
All retailers know that slow or inefficient distribution can cost big time—one study estimated inefficiencies could cost distributors $47 million per year in lost revenue.
Inefficiency can result in thousands of lost hours—but TruTrace is hoping to change that.
The company deploys the StrainSecure platforms for companies marketing CBD and other cannabis-adjacent medical products. The platform validates and verifies each company’s product, allowing the companies to match their products with needs all over the markets.
So total verification works hand-in-hand with total distribution.
By working through the StrainSecure platform, each company can verify their product passes through each stage of the supply chain. The service offers transparency and assurance for all who use it—improving trust within the cannabis industry and allowing producers to cut way down on distribution costs.
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#4 Expand, Expand, Expand
This tech—the StrainSecure service—is LIVE.
TruTrace (CSE:TTT; OTC:TTTSF) has hit the ground running, and new revenues and partners could be just around the corner.
TruTrace’s different applications gives it multiple revenue streams—from exposure to the medical cannabis industry to helping companies throughout the cannabis supply chain connect with one another.
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And there’s already an expansion plan in place.
First, TruTrace plans to cement its place in Canada, where cannabis is fully legal. Through StrainSecure™, the company hopes to construct a sales pipeline for cannabis products to major distributors.
From there, it hopes to move onward to the United States, where cannabis is regulated in more than a dozen states.
In California and Washington DC, where cannabis is decriminalized, TruTrace will target major distributors of CBD and cannabis products—including Walgreens and CVS; each reports more than $100 billion in sales per year.
TruTrace Technologies has its sights set on a world beyond cannabis—bringing its StrainSecure™ tech to markets adjacent to cannabis.
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#5 Grow Baby, Grow
Where is TruTrace at right now?
Well, the company is flying way under the radar.
But buzz is starting to build.
StrainSecure™ has plans for expansion in 2019 and 2020.
And the company has just secured a huge opportunity.
TruTrace Technologies (CSE:TTT; OTC:TTTSF) stock jumped on the news that it had signed a deal with Shoppers Drug Mart, a major pharmacy chain in Canada. The company has 1300 stores throughout Canada and is a major name in pharmaceuticals.
This expansion is huge—it gives TruTrace a stable customer in a major market, and solidifies the company’s move away from cannabis into the retail game, with groceries and other major markets coming into view.
“This is a game-changing milestone that partners us with the most recognizable pharmaceutical brand in Canada,” said TruTrace Technologies CEO Robert Galarza.
And with the Shoppers Drug Mart deal in place, a lot more business could be just around the corner.
The stock has been stagnant, but catalysts could be coming—once the company expands access to StrainSecure™ and continues to grow the revenue stream.
TruTrace is sitting on ideas which could make a huge difference in a market that has only just begun its meteoric growth. And its tech—harnessing the power of the blockchain—has applications far beyond TruTrace’s current, relatively narrow base.
Things can only get better from here. Expect the price to potential jump even higher as the deal with Shoppes Drug Mart solidifies—perhaps from $0.20 to $0.30-35 and beyond.
