Financial failure is not the end for medical marijuana millionaire and businessman Maximilian White.

Financial failure is not the end for medical marijuana millionaire and businessman Maximilian White.

Europe’s richest legal cannabis magnate has experienced great misfortune, twice in his career and once in his father’s life. However, his personal reaction when his company lost $29 million in the Cypriot banking collapse in 2012 was somewhat unusual.

Instead of earning the rest of his money, he wasted his money buying a Rolls Royce which he drove in public.

“I am a proud man. “I didn’t want people to think I was lost,” he says. “I might as well be a poser.” In fact, he is hardworking and not afraid of failure.

Like many of his generation, White is now embracing blockchain technology — with the unique use case of NFTs — as part of his business.

He says the whole is better than the sum of the parts, like a cocktail.

“For example, a Manhattan cocktail is a mixture of whiskey, bittersweet vermouth. It’s the combination that makes it great. “For me, it’s a combination of cannabis, blockchain and cryptocurrency – you can’t go wrong.”

Who is Maximilian White?

White’s first career was in music production, including working on a track with Drake that led to the song “One Dance.” He also built and sold a music streaming service called Beatport, which brought him millions.

His love affair with Portugal saw him create a beach club called Blanco Beach, which was frequented by Rio Ferdinand and featured top performances from Tyga, Tory Lanez, Roger Sanchez, Rick Ross and French Montana. It has since closed.

White also suffers from ADHD, which he believes allows him to have an eclectic taste in music, from classical to UK funk and hip-hop.

He says he knew he would become a business builder when he was still in elementary school. When he was asked to dress up as the man he was going to be, he didn’t make it to his class as a firefighter or a policeman. Instead, he chose to dress like a businessman, wearing a sheepskin jacket and carrying a classic canvas bag.

He attributes his work ethic to his early life, where he sang as a cantor at Durham Cathedral and never had a day off, including singing on Christmas Day.

He made most of his fortune selling medical marijuana to wholesalers around the world and establishing Europe’s largest farm in Portugal, a massive 40-hectare farm. He has somehow managed to secure multiple government partnerships in previously untapped areas.

He expanded to include properties in Dubai, Mallorca and Eastern Europe, and says his interest was sparked by the loss of the family home when he was a child. His father lost everything, and they had to move to a council house. He has since witnessed an even greater personal tragedy in full view of the public when his brother died in a violent brawl at a Dubai nightclub in 2022.

Legal marijuana and cryptocurrencies

Many people who grew up under restrictive marijuana laws may feel uncomfortable with legal cannabis, but in recent years, laws around the world have become increasingly liberal.

Read also: How the Silk Road made your postman a merchant

Medical marijuana is now legal in more than 50 countries, and nine countries have legalized recreational marijuana use, including Canada, Germany, South Africa, and Thailand. Ironically, despite the Netherlands’ good reputation, cannabis is not strictly legal there, although it is tolerated.

In 2021, White told Ladbible about plans to develop a cryptocurrency for the cannabis industry called MEDI. That code never got off the ground — he got busy building his own medical marijuana business instead — but three years later, he revised the plans and revamped them into something new.

With the help of digital marketer Riccardo Capone, an old friend who now serves as his chief technology officer, White integrated his cannabis product with NFTs to provide a tracking engine on the blockchain for his plants.

White says that when he first came across NFTs, he didn’t see them as valuable pieces of art. Although Beeple’s $69 million NFT sale dominated the news, White wasn’t enthusiastic about artist sales or royalties.

“However, I immediately got access to smart contracts, and that excited me. I can see future commercial use that would reduce the need for lawyers. People can buy cars or real estate using smart contracts, or you can sell a company with complete transparency. Smart contracts made me delve deeper into this field.

NFTs represent businesses

However, White isn’t sure if the term has a good reputation anymore. Since he already sells recreational cannabis, he’s a little wary about doubling down on his efforts by associating it with the term “NFTs.”

“People have lost a lot of money investing in NFTs, which are usually digital artworks, but technology is what interests me. So, I think the responsibility is on us to educate people about these real-world assets, or digital assets, and what they can do. It’s not just about flipping art.

“Again, I would bring it back for commercial use,” he says, explaining how non-fungible tokens — unique tokens — can represent a fractional share of ownership in the real world. “For example, people might be buying real estate today, using NFTs as a way to show ownership. If you’re not able to buy the entire house, maybe you can buy a portion of it, and in the future, you can even sell the NFT and earn a profit and put it toward your next home.

His latest cryptocurrency project is called “Dr. Green,” in which NFTs are used as part of the distribution business or what he calls “people’s unique business passes.” A total of 5,145 unique NFTs provide holders with access to the Dr Green DApp so they can build a cannabis retail community. There are also plans to release Platinum NFTs associated with cannabis-loving celebrities who will create their own strains.

The decentralized application requires KYCing customers to ensure that the product is only sold in areas where it is legal to do so. Payments are made in fiat or cryptocurrency, with the profit margin paid to sellers in Ethereum. DrGreen then ships the products out.

Tracking the weed supply chain on the blockchain

White says blockchain traceability proves the quality of the product, and says he has spent millions investing in a “hemp farm, processing plant and R&D facility.”

“We have invested significant funds in developing one of the most advanced medical cannabis companies. By putting our entertainment business on the blockchain, we use technology to track everything, ensure we comply with all laws, and also allows us to act as a hub for distributed entrepreneurs.

In short, NFTs are a bit like a license to operate a company that is linked to its distribution network and can be traded with others if necessary. An NFT rises in value based on the number of customers it represents. Some will see this as a smart business move that blends technology and entrepreneurship, while others will undoubtedly see it as a moral bankruptcy and a corruption of our youth. But times are changing.

“Our NFTs act as a digital key or real-world asset that you can plug into a company’s systems that are already up and running.”

Interested, but still cautious about cryptocurrencies

Despite his interest in blockchain technology, he is cautious about the hype around cryptocurrencies as a financial instrument and believes there is an inherent flaw in the way cryptocurrencies are valued against the dollar.

“If the price of cryptocurrencies will always be valued in real world money, how can it be decentralized? The dollar will never be decentralized, and I think this is a dangerous precedent.

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Gillian Goodsell

Gillian Goodsell is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and author. She changed Ireland’s electoral laws through a constitutional challenge in the Supreme Court of Ireland in 2014, is a former European Parliament candidate, and is an advocate for diversity, women in blockchain, and the homeless.