A startup company, ALTA headquartered in Arizona is seeking to innovate financial technology (FinTech), through this initiative, ALTA wants to settle large issues of marijuana dispensaries. Due to federal drug regulations, banks cannot work with cannabis easily. Maximum marijuana dispensaries can only prefer cash for transactions.
ALTA Company has taken a significant move, and the new initiative is accepted by Attorney General Mark Brnovich of Arizona as a part of Arizona’s FinTech Sandbox program. The FinTech Sandbox program enables modern and startup financial-based technology companies to test their business products as they receive licenses and regulatory permissions.
ALTA has approached with a digital payment platform that uses tokens rather than cash or card. This digital technology will assist marijuana and cannabis firms to process transactions and pay providers, taxes, and bills.
Most of these companies work as cash businesses because of the federal and state laws that do not allow banks to carry operations with them.
ALTA co-founder and COO, Sarah Wessel mentioned,
“The cash economy for legal cannabis in Arizona exceeds $350 million annually. These are legitimate companies, innovators and entrepreneurs that are forced to operate in cash. We offer them peace of mind. Our digital payment technology lifts the burdens of having to operate solely through cash and makes our communities safer.”
Around 70 percent of medical marijuana services are unbanked — several digital payment based companies’ need a bank account.
The new digital technology enables cannabis firms to pay government taxes through digital tokens and offers an electronic mode of revenue validations.
Jesse Forrest is the CEO of ALTA and the company was established along with Sarah Wessel.
Forrest stated ALTA was designed to suit within the banking sector’s regulatory framework. We recognize where the cash arrived from, who owns it and where it went, which is something bank cannot handle. This is how we settle the issue.
ALTA will enable business providers to purchase virtual tokens from the firm.
Sarah Wessel further mentioned,
“At that point, they’re able to pay their taxes, utilities and any other vendor in the form of tokens instead of cash. After they’re done, and they’re ready to sell back their tokens, they sell them back, and it proceeds from the sale of a digital commodity, and now they can be banked anywhere.”
Mint Dispensary owner, Raul Molina said collecting cash and then having our dealers or wholesale people walk across with so much cash, there is always a security risk involved in it. Further, Molina added, Not everyone carries money. Most of the time we are purchasing things from another state, or we are hoping to receive from another firm, and not permitted to pay the maximum amount of money or have no access to money, I’m not going to pay 20,000 US dollars in cash via email.
Molina mentioned- Business owners like me are ready to pay to avail the service.
ALTA Company is the Seventh firm to be awarded ‘Arizona’s FinTech Sandbox’ rank. The Sandbox program was initiated in 2018. The state’s program supports new innovative businesses and technology to enter the market.
