Little old Calyx Bio-Ventures (CYX.V) has been quietly toiling away on its Slack-like messaging/commerce platform for some time now, mostly in a vacuum, at least as it applies to the market. The stock doesn’t trade, the price doesn’t move, and the market looks at other shiny things because the market is a squirrel in constant search of the biggest nut.
But Calyx has been putting the pieces in place for a while now, and yesterday’s news (slim as it was) that it was implementing blockchain tech into its system generated a monster million shares traded.
We talk to CEO Roger Forde on the reg, and called him up for the skinny on the blockchain move, and while he was mostly tight-lipped. we did get some detail.
This was the entire news release from yesterday:
Calyx Bio-Ventures Inc. is pleased to announce that its wholly owned subsidiary Cannigistics Agri-Solutions Corp. is planning to incorporate Block Chain Technology into its future product offerings. In anticipation of the further legalization and regulation of the marihuana industry in Canada, Calyx intends to expand Cannigistics’ capabilities utilizing this technology. Future Cannigistics’ applications will be able to ensure the authenticity, efficiency, and trustworthiness of its peer-to-peer transactions, thus creating leading edge reliability and security in its cloud computing platforms. With the implementation of Block Chain Technology, future applications will perform at the highest trust levels and meet regulations beyond what a traditionally designed application could achieve.
The SEO on this release is terrible, because anyone with a Google alert on ‘blockchain’ and ‘marijuana’ wouldn’t have got a hit.
But let’s move past that and see it as an opportunity, because when the blockchain crew see a company coming close, they swarm. Just look at Acana Capital (ACM.C), which is bringing in Blockchain Intelligence Group. Money raised at $0.25 – the stock price ran so hard they had to up the raise mid-financing to $0.35. Two weeks later? It’s $0.85.
Calyx is $0.06. A $4 million market cap. There’s potential to make some money here, if there’s a company at the end of it.
Here’s what I know:
Calyx has built the platform they’re speaking of. It’s not finished, but it’s active, and being actively licensed by companies. It was utilized in a recent political campaign by a provincial party. It’s being used by a major Canadian media company to support an e-commerce app/site. It’s being used in the medical field and and early prototype is being used by car dealers to trade vehicles between themselves.
So where does blockchain come in?
Forde has been talking to weed companies for a few years now about helping them facilitate their business, and right now there’s a growing market among dispensaries that may within the next six months be legalized. Those dispensaries buy and sell weed from growers that grow and sell weed, to people who buy and use weed, and all of that is cash business. Dispensaries can’t use credit cards and get shiny bank accounts with big institutions, so cash is shunted back and forth.
This is silly. And Cryptocurrencies could put an end to it, while maintaining security.
Forde tells me he wants to incorporate blockchain into his platform, presumably to enhance the potential for ecommerce. Beyond that, he’s keeping quiet, for now, because he says, “I have some hiring to do, and I don’t want to give the game away before everything is locked down.”
“Also, we’re a public company, so if we’re working on something that, right now, isn’t legal, but may be soon, or may be legal with provisos, we have to be careful how that rolls out.”
Fair. Forde isn’t Promo Guy. But I think I know where’s he’s going.
Picture the potential for CYX to run its platform, allowing the relevant parties in a weed supply deal to connect on an invite-only platform, then facilitate a trade, and use a clean crypto to do so, which can be converted to dollars any time, using blockchain tech to keep the ledgers secure. Imagine if customers at a dispensary could use their own Weedcoin (or whatever the crypto ends up being called) to buy their product, and that they could use their own computer to ‘mine’ more by being part of the blockchain that facilitates the purchases.
Imagine all these things, while understanding Forde has not announced any of this.
But if he doesn’t, or something like it, real soon, I’m going to do it myself.
If he does, the pieces will fall into place very quickly.
I’m excited. Excited enough that Calyx just became a client again. I want in.
— Chris Parry
FULL DISCLOSURE: Calyx Bio-Ventures is an Equity.guru marketing client. Again.
NB: Pursuant to a resolution passed by the directors dated Nov. 27, 2017, Calyx Bio-Ventures Inc. changed its name to Calyx Ventures Inc. effective as at Feb. 5, 2018. The ticker symbol CYX is unchanged.