San diego crypto bar and lounge

Nearby the Jacobs Center, Valencia Park, and the Malcolm X library in Southeast San Diego, there is the Medicine Man Club. “It is going to be the country club of marijuana,” says founder Robert Mcpherson, whose family owns the location.

The club issued “Medicine Man tokens” (MMT), its own digital currency. Medicine Man members pay $25 per month and receive 25 tokens to a wallet on the Waves platform, which allows individuals and entities to make customized crypto-tokens. Those tokens represent one’s membership. For goods inside the Club, more MMT is needed. Each MMT is currently valued at $1. Medicine Man accepts PotCoin and Bitcoin for their tokens.

“As more members take tokens off the market, the price keeps increasing,” says Mcpherson. To become a member, one must download a Waves wallet in order to transact in the club’s native token.

The Club, which currently has 30 members and will ultimately allow 150-240, envisions a Dave and Buster style use of tokens for events, goods and special concerts. “We are creating more uses for the tokens as we go,” he says.

One such special event featured Houston rapper Devin the Dude Meet-and-Greet. “There was a fifteen token fee for the Meet and Greet on the blockchain,” said Mcpherson.

‘Gamers Ave’ is a peer-to-peer video game tournament, for which it uses Gamecredits, a crypto-currency that allows gamers and developers buy and sell games and in-game items.

“You buy-in with [cryptocurrency], place a bounty on your head, people play you for that bounty,” says Mcpherson. “If you win, you give up that digital currency.” Participants play Smash Brothers, Madden, Mortal Combat, Call of Duty, Legion and the like.

The Club, which does not allow photos and whose members must sign NDAs, has completely eliminated cash. McPherson says this helps him to abide by the law. “It allows us to track everything that is going on in the Club, from inventory to whoever has come here. Each MMT is verified by the blockchain.”

Members can buy the token at the Club or on Wave’s decentralized exchange, which is downloadable from the Waves platform. The Club keeps tokens on hand to be able to walk people through the process, as well as accepts bitcoin and cash for Membership Tokens.

“It’s similar to how at Dave and Busters you pay for Power Play cards for videos, and can’t pay cash for video games,” says Mcpherson. “Dispensaries have tons of problems with cash. We are using our digital currency now. My digital currency has a pair to bitcoin, and one can sell or rent their memberships out. If you have a membership and a friend is in town and you can’t take them, you can rent them the tokens. They just have to show they control the 25 tokens to prove membership.” Mcpherson says San Diego hasn’t had a marijuana club yet. The only crypto-token driven club might be LEGENDS, a strip club in Vegas.

“With marijuana being legal every one is dispensary, dispensary, dispensary,” says Mcpherson. “We focus on the entertainment side of it. We don’t sell marijuana here. You get pre-rolls, but you can’t come here and buy and eighth or an ounce. We operate like a bar. Everything you get here, you must consume here.”

Events so far have included Extravaganja, Strip N’ Dabz, and Secret Bowl Sesh with as many as 500 guests who smoke, talk to vendors and chill.

“We are on private property,” says the owner. “The law states you can smoke marijuana on private property. So, when we say we are pro-marijuana, it means we don’t shy away from marijuana events, as long as they follow strict guidelines. No one may leave the premises, no large denominations of any sales - simple things keeping people safe. We don’t really tell people ‘no’. We just give them guidelines to follow.”

Still, Mcpherson, who keeps big events to no more than twice per week, acknowledges he’s working in a gray area. “There’s no city ordinance for what I am doing,” he says. “We are not operating as a dispensary, we are operating as an entertainment venue.”