The Future of
Cannabis and Commerce

Empowering a vibrant cannabis community with blockchain technology.

Justin Calvino - Founder

Jason Parker - Co-Founder

Welcome To The Emerald Road!

Company Purpose

Our purpose is to empower communities through blockchain, social engagement, and e-commerce. Giving brands and creators the ability to maintain ownership of products and content while allowing them to control pricing.

The Problem

Although the cannabis industry continues to experience incredible market growth and adoption, there is no central hub for canna culture and canna-curious consumers to connect, socialize, learn, transact, and be entertained.

The cannabis industry is highly segmented between consumers, cultivators, content creators, brands, dispensaries, educational forums, ancillary businesses, and state/government localities and policy interests. Businesses within this highly regulated industry face numerous roadblocks in advertising and marketing that make it difficult to build community and create meaningful engagement with consumers.

Market Fragmentation

Fragmentation leads to enormous market inefficiencies in every commercial vertical as well as an inability to harness consumer engagement at scale - a scale generating tens of billions of dollars annually.

Consumer and Commercial Engagement

Brands are unable to authentically, collaboratively or efficiently connect with consumers.
Existing platforms lack proper customer service and support.
Cannabis culture hasn't developed a multi-faceted community ecosystem.

Legacy Technology Limitations

Legacy platforms are not embracing emerging technology (the “Blockbuster Video” effect).
Limited adoption of the opportunity.
Beyond the cryptocurrency hype are untapped digital networks of efficiency.

The Opportunity

The Solution

Emerald Road becomes the community hub for the cannabis industry, as Uber is for personal transportation, Airbnb is for accommodations, and Facebook is for social media. Emerald Road will be the platform for the cannabis industry and consumers with a suite of purchasing and marketing tools, content and education, and community-building experiences, powered on the blockchain.

Leverage decades of cannabis experience with emergent technologies to address challenges faced by the worldwide cannabis industry in financing, manufacturing, and distribution by the creation of an e-Commerce/media platform that acts as a social and entertainment hub for cannabis enthusiasts and the brands, artists and creators they love.

Taken a step further, these emergent technology applications go far beyond the use case of the cannabis space.

Platform Scale

Business scale powered by the ability to leverage and orchestrate a global connected ecosystem of producers and consumers toward efficient value creation and exchange.

The management of platform scale involves the design and optimization of value-exchange interactions between producers and consumers.

Platform Vs Pipeline

Ecosystem is the new supply chain
Network effect is the new economy of scale
Data is the new currency
Community management is the new customer service
Trust and reputation are the new quality control
User experience is the new sales funnel
Engagement is the new loyalty program
Escrows are the new payment systems
Algorithms are the new decision makers

The Benefits of Web3 for the Cannabis Industry

Empower consumers

Enhanced user experience

Shared value and influence

Community first

Why Now?

There is a nexus of three synergistic industries in transition.

Technology

Continued proliferation and adoption of blockchain technology, and its applications in the business, financial, and consumer sectors.

Web3 is the next iteration of the internet, driven by users’ desire for a more inclusive community.
$35B invested in blockchain in 2021.
$2T - Crypto market capitalization.
$24B - Current Metaverse valuation.
$800B - *Estimated future valuation of the Metaverse.
$1T - *Estimated future revenue generated in the Metaverse from digital events, e-Commerce, and advertising.

Cannabis

Mainstream adoption and increased market capitalization.

25% of Americans consume cannabis.
$51B - Forecast of global cannabis sales by 2025.
$100B - Forbes Magazine estimate of legal and illicit cannabis sales in 2021.
Illicit cannabis sales are 3X legal sales but the trend is expected to reverse in the future.
60% of cannabis enthusiasts use delivery services regularly.

e-Commerce

Public trends leading to more personalized engagement with brands, artists, and the content they consume.

Traditional online platforms censor or limit content around cannabis limiting engagement.
$870B - 2021 eCommerce sales in the US.
Transition from Web2 to Web3.
Web3 opportunity for creator/consumer engagement.

Emerald Road Value Proposition

Leverage existing business relationships in the cannabis space to harness the next generation of technology by building a focal point for an entire industry.

Product

Emerald Road is a multi-level digital platform providing B2B and B2C payment and business solutions while connecting consumers with branded cannabis products, elevated content, education, and a dynamic digital community through a crypto-exclusive mobile app for B2C licensed cannabis transactions.

Farmer's Market

Enter a farmer's market-style bazaar where consumers can more deeply connect with brands and collaborators to purchase goods, services, or experiences.

Emerald Stage

Connect with music creators and fellow fans through exclusive content, members-only events, as well as, streaming and archived content.

Wellness Village

Members can access live or archived content or support their favorite practitioner by purchasing products or joining blockchain projects. Members can take a yoga class, practice breathwork, sound healing, or just learn how to be more connected.

Emerald University AKA "The Seed of Knowledge"

Features educational content from industry and thought leaders around cannabis culture, wellness, governmental policies, environment, and the intellectual discussions and philosophies of our time.

Emerald Road e-Commerce platform is the parent structure to all of the social, entertainment, and economic communities underneath it. It leads companies, brands, and cannabis enthusiasts to a clear and tailored marketplace. The website also encourages users to engage with featured content and provides the opportunity to engage brands and fellow members. This encourages the usage of the Emerald Road utility token as a means of payment over fiat and other cryptocurrencies. Additional services and functionality available are:

Wallet Connectivity

Emerald Road offers convenient access to your mobile wallet, allowing quick payment and peer-to-peer or peer-to-business transfers.

e-Commerce

Customers are able to browse cannabis brands, entertainment, educational offerings, and a host of other goods and services.

Marketing Incentives

Emerald Road allows brands to present ads depending on the desires of the consumer. The advertiser would immediately reimburse users who want to view these ads with ERT. Emerald Road advertisers can get greater exposure in the mobile app.

Mobile Identification

Emerald Road offers quick access for customer ID verification supporting existing current and future KYC regulations. In order to purchase any cannabis products, clients must first register and be certified.

Emerald Road Maps

A proximity chart and in-app functionality identifying nearby affiliate dispensaries where the Emerald Road connected partners can be purchased.

Loyalty Program

Emerald Road allows for the development of a loyalty and discount program based around the Emerald Road utility token.

Market Size

Advertising - $100B

US internet ad revenue

Consulting Partners

Platform Index - $3T
US internet ad revenue

eCommerce Revenue
$870.7B

Market Size

Victor Cornejo

Stakeholder

A multi-license holder in the state of California and Investor

Victor is a Mendocino native and third generation cannabis farmer. His love for his community and the land he cultivates on has him investing heavily in global craft cannabis solutions

Jason Parker

Co-founder

Vision and Community Management

Jason's years of pioneering in the world of VR , Web3, and Gamification, coupled with his years of psychology and teambuilding, has him leading the community development of Emerald Road.

Founding Team

Justin Calvino

Founder, CEO

Legacy cultivator, entrepreneur, and pioneer.

Justin Calvino is an entrepreneur and innovator in the cannabis space. He founded The Mendocino Appellation Project which created the world’s first cannabis appellation map that mirrors the authentic French wine bottle with D.O.C. designations. Through his consultancy, Medicine Garden West, he helps other cannabis regions and farmers create their own Appellation of Origin designation by guiding them through the process of creating standards of practices, drawing maps, cataloging the traditional knowledge component, and identifying key expressions of each phenotype. He guides brands in creating a go-to-market strategy based on a unique estate-grown approach to cannabis.

Justin is a founding member of The Ganjier Council, the cannabis sommelier certification program, and is an instructor who teaches "Unraveling the Mysteries of Cannabis Genetics," and explains the secret to reading a cannabis plant and how each plant is a reflection of the person that grew it and an expression of the environment that nurtured it.

Veronica Wood

Media Director

Veronica is a director based in Los Angeles. She enjoys working at the intersection of aesthetics and equity. With a penitent for social justice, she creates films with themes of open access to technology, capital, and human rights. She often works in indigenous documentaries, and is an executive board member and CFO of Indigenous Network.

She has also been working on films about language revitalisation, and human rights at the US border. Her work has been viewed over 55 million times and several of her films have gained accolades from festivals such as South by Southwest Film Festival, Atlanta Film Festival, and Cinequest Film Festival.

Michael Wright

CTO

Michael is a payments and fintech veteran of almost 10 years with two successful exits under his belt. He hails from the midwest and has the work ethic to go with it, with a passion for building - whether it's companies, technology, or cabins - he’s into it. Michael has an insatiable curiosity for new ideas and thrives on helping bring them to reality for his friends and business partners, with a special expertise in weaving payments systems seamlessly into cutting edge technology, creating millions of dollars in stakeholder value along the way. He is currently working on a number of interesting projects from his home office in Los Angeles pushing the boundaries of how we think about and interact with commerce and the transfer of value.

Consulting Partners

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Kip Morrison Associates

PR/Marketing

Headquartered in Beverly Hills, KMA is one of the few PR agencies with over 30 years of successful reach in the industry. We have emerged as a leader in shining the spotlight on the country’s best-known cannabis products and brands securing top-tier media placements for our clients.

Being one of the most talented and experienced boutique PR firms in the industry, we have a track record of shaping strategy, driving exposure and business value for our clients. KMA sharply defines your story using creative approaches to both making news that generates maximum media coverage and engaging consumers where they least expect it. Our experience and results are unparalleled.

Business Model

Platform Sales

10% of all sales on the platform.

Site Fees

Monthly site fees for brands and dispensaries.
Fee structure for “featured” brands, artists, and content creators.
Paid partnerships on the platform and live/streaming events.

Data collection revenue - retargeting LINK

Advertising

Internet advertising value is $39 per month, per person.
Brands, artists, and practitioners will be able to offer goods, services, and experiences while incentivizing community members with tokenized ad opportunities.

*Preferences can be analyzed for targeted buying and content suggestions.

Membership

Paid annual membership provides exclusive benefits, access to exclusive content, invitations to in-person events, and promotional material from participating brands.