With the completion of the first two phases of their medical cannabis verification program in their rear view mirror, TruTrace Technologies (TTT.C) is now looking to the future for opportunities. The program was designed to increase transparency, interoperability and product identification within the medical cannabis industry through the implementation of blockchain-based StrainSecure traceability platform.
“The success of the medical cannabis verification pilot program has been tremendously important for us. It has validated our technology and begun to establish the StrainSecure platform as a potential de facto standard for quality assurance and traceability in the Canadian cannabis industry. We are currently focused and investing additional resources on transition of our platform into a fully operational ecosystem that could provide a revenue stream and in turn enable us to achieve cash-flow-positive operations by the end of calendar year 2020, while also allowing us to pursue other exciting opportunities,” said Trutrace Technologies chief executive officer Robert Galarza.
StrainSecure was invented to meet the problem of clarifying the genetic-purity of individual cannabis strains. Whenever you go into a dispensary there’s nothing guaranteeing you that what you’re buying is actually what it says it is. It may say Purple Kush on the package, but it could easily be repackaged skunkweed from Billy Bob’s back shed sprinkled liberally with purple strands to mask the appearance.
This technology builds trust in the cannabis industry, not only between producers and retailers but also for the consumer. Of course there aren’t any stories like the one above actually happening in the cannabis space, but with companies like CannTrust Holdings (TRST.C) trying to sneak illegal grow rooms past Health Canada, having another added verifiable measure to shore up trust in the cannabis industry couldn’t hurt.
But there’s more to this technology than just cannabis. One of their targets for the StrainSecure platform in the coming year is the introduction of pharmaceutical and nutraceutical verticals, as well as entry into international markets.
“The technology we initially deployed in the medical cannabis sector is highly applicable in other verticals such as pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals and even food safety, where it is equally important to have complete transparency on the origin and authenticity of products. In the next year we are aiming to establish a foothold in these sectors, as well as extend our footprint in cannabis traceability into several markets outside of Canada,” said Galarza.
The nutraceuticals market is totally unregulated, and that makes it a perfect choice for TruTrace’s platform. It has a lot of the same problems associated with weed in that, being completely unregulated, there’s no way of discerning the sources for some of these pills and other food. Or for that matter, if what you’re ingesting is actually what you think you’re ingesting. But if every step of their journey from their origin to the shelf were chronicled and written down on an immutable blockchain, then you wouldn’t have to worry about the origin, the quality or whether or not the chemical you’re ingesting is actually what it says it is on the package.
Regardless, here are a few of TruTrace’s priorities for 2020:
- Continue its execution of the StrainSecure medical cannabis traceability platform and advance the platform from POC to full operational implementation, thereby establishing a potential revenue stream to finance the company’s growth;
- Deploy StrainSecure with an initial set of licensed producers in several rapidly growing international medical cannabis markets;
- Advance several key strategic partnerships and alliances;
- Commencing business development initiatives with pharmaceutical and nutraceutical customers including utilization of the company’s traceability platform, adapted to meet specific requirements of these sectors.
The company will provide provide updates throughout the year on their progress.
—Joseph Morton