The crypto weed vape discovered me on 4/20, the excessive vacation of hashish fans all over the place. It arrived over Slack with the thumbnail of a person exhaling a plume of vapor, the phrases “each hit delivers Bitcoin” emblazoned throughout it. It claimed to be promoting a tool known as Gudtrip, and I believed all the pieces about it sounded pretend.
So I went on the lookout for it. What I ultimately discovered, after weeks of looking, dozens of emails, and a reporting effort that spanned continents, was by some means even dumber than I’d imagined.
My first port of name was Gudtrip’s websitewhich solely made the vape appear extra like a prank. The corporate’s description of the product was tech buzzword bingo — this wasn’t only a vape that delivered Bitcoin, it was “the primary agentic hashish gadget” combining “premium hashish, blockchain rewards, and AI-powered asset instruments in a single product.” This alleged gadget wasn’t simply operating on crypto hype: now AI was within the combine, too.
However I did discover one signal that the product was actual. The web site mentioned that its vapes have been obtainable in California, with New York additionally listed as “coming quickly.” And there was a reputation for the model behind it: Puffpawan organization that presents itself because the maker of the “world’s first gamified good vape” for nicotine. One way or the other, it’s presupposed to incentivize quitting nicotine via a mechanism that, like Gudtrip, I didn’t perceive.
I went to Gudtrip’s social accounts to scour for extra. The product appeared to have quietly launched in March. In any other case, most posts reiterated that through the use of Gudtrip, you’d get some Bitcoin. Gudtrip’s pinned submit on X as of this writing reads, “Smoke weed and earn @Bitcoin.” One other asks: “new yorkers are you able to smoke a joint and earn bitcoin?” On Threads, Gudtrip posted about “constructing wealth one puff at a time” and explained that customers can “Earn Bitcoin from each single puff.” A pulsating TikTok video described the vape as “the excessive that pays you again.”
It was sufficient to persuade me the product is perhaps actual. This was, by some means, shaping as much as be an actual vape. However I didn’t perceive within the slightest the way it labored. Does the vape mine Bitcoin? I emailed Gudtrip to seek out out.
Gudtrip didn’t get again to me immediately, so I began on the lookout for extra. On LinkedIn, I discovered one “Reffo T., listed as CEO of Gudtrip, “a premium hashish model turning consumption into an onchain incomes expertise.” He’d written a blog post coaxing dispensaries to inventory these vapes. “The product sells itself,” he wrote. “The Bitcoin simply makes positive clients bear in mind the place they obtained it.”
Weed is authorized in California, however merchandise are regulated. So I requested California’s Division of Hashish Management, which licenses and regulates business hashish exercise within the state, whether or not it permits merchandise that reward consumption. Jordan Traverso, the division’s deputy director of public affairs, mentioned the company hadn’t heard of Gudtrip’s AI crypto vape. “We weren’t beforehand conversant in the Gudtrip product however have reached out to the producer to be taught extra about its options,” he wrote. That made two of us.
At this level, I’d reached the restrict of what I might do from London. So I requested my US colleagues for assist. Gudtrip claimed to be obtainable in California in precisely two shops. It simply so occurred {that a} colleague was within the space to swing by the dispensary to see as soon as and for all: Does this vape really exist?
Upon strolling within the door of the NUG Cannabis Dispensary in Oakland, we discovered the reply: An enormous Gudtrip poster instantly promised clients “ongoing Crypto Rewards over time.” It learn, plainly, “Get Excessive. Get Bitcoin.”
Clearly, we purchased it. The AI weed vape price $67 after tax.
That was additionally when Gudtrip replied — and by some means, issues grew to become much more hazy.
The entire “paying folks to smoke weed” factor sounded fairly catchy, nevertheless it didn’t sound totally authorized. (It doesn’t sound notably wholesome, both. Researchers speaking to crypto outlet DL News mentioned encouraging day by day use is doubtlessly harmful and habit-forming.)
It seems Gudtrip agreed. Once I requested Gudtrip what the vape really does, how the rewards work, and the way the corporate responds to criticism that it’s encouraging folks to devour hashish for crypto, Gudtrip’s CTO, Rishi Kommuri, emailed again just a few numbered paragraphs. The road that stood out to me most: “it’s really unlawful to supply monetary incentives per consumption kind and so forth in any approach.”
Regardless of what Gudtrip’s web site, X account, Threads account, TikTok account, and a large banner in NUG Hashish Dispensary promised, Kommuri was now claiming that the vape did not offer you Bitcoin for vaping.
“The Bitcoin reward is decoupled from consumption,” he wrote. “It’s paid upfront on activation, to each buyer, and doesn’t scale with puff period, session depend, day by day use, or streaks. A buyer who by no means makes use of the gadget after activation receives the identical reward 2$-60$ BTC equal reward as one who makes use of it recurrently. This can be a commonplace client loyalty mechanic — Bitcoin instead of factors — and Bitcoin is a commodity below SEC and CFTC classification. We’re assured the construction complies with the hashish laws of each market we function in.”
So, you don’t really “Earn Bitcoin from each single puff”? A video on the company’s website states “each inhale syncs along with your telephone and earns bitcoin and gudtrip factors in actual time” — nevertheless it doesn’t really try this? As a result of that may be unlawful?
Gudtrip’s app solely made the scenario extra complicated. When a colleague went to obtain it through the QR-coded on the poster at NUG Oakland dispensary (it was provided through TestFlight, quite than Apple’s App Retailer), the obtain web page promised one thing else. The preview screenshot clearly acknowledged that the app rewards puffs on the vape — not with crypto, however with Gudtrip Factors. What have been Gudtrip Factors? What might they be redeemed for? We reached out to Gudtrip once more to make clear.
A second electronic mail from Kommuri reiterated, with some urgency: “The principle level we wish to be certain that was clear is that Gudtrip’s Bitcoin reward is tied to activation, not consumption.” And once more, you don’t get rewarded for puffs! “Gudtrip Factors are a separate, non-monetary loyalty system tracked in-app. They don’t seem to be blockchain rewards and usually are not redeemable for money, cryptocurrency, or hashish merchandise.”
The contradictions have been piling up.
Kommuri had an evidence for this: “The per-puff factors displayed in that screenshot was a legacy characteristic carried from our different good {hardware} merchandise … that is not a characteristic we at present present.” And people “ongoing crypto rewards over time”? Nicely, that “refers to our future portfolio administration characteristic within the app.” Sure, the app can also be meant to supply funding planning to your crypto portfolio.
So, the per-puff factors system is a defunct legacy characteristic, and the crypto portfolio-managing agentic AI doesn’t really exist but. What does this really do once more, apart from the apparent?
The one approach to discover out what the vape really did was to lastly use it. Nonetheless, our ethics coverage forbids us from individually proudly owning cryptocurrency, so we registered a throwaway account for the Bitcoin. And our authorized crew discourages us from writing about questionably authorized drug utilization, so we additionally ordered an auto fluid extractor pump to simulate puffing the vape.
Upon linking the vape to Gudtrip’s app, we have been rewarded with $2 price of Bitcoin. To date, so good. However would there be extra as we vaped?
As one other colleague pumped the vape into the extractor, the arced progress bar throughout the app stuffed up. Factors have been tabulated. He’d pumped past the 20 seconds of day by day toking that was “really helpful” for our “well being,” however no Bitcoin was dispersed past the preliminary quantity. There are separate, devoted app pages to maintain observe of your present prize worth and your toke-accumulation historical past, however to get one other $2–$60 in Bitcoin, you would want to buy a brand new, disposable $67 vape. That’s how they get you.
In the meantime, as we emailed forwards and backwards with Kommuri, a number of social media posts appeared to fade from Gudtrip’s accounts, although it’s not clear what posts could have been eliminated or why. Listed posts on Google — which, when clicked, say the posts aren’t obtainable — recommend one was a TikTok video that used the wording “Make investments whilst you puff,” whereas one other was for an Instagram submit with the phrase “Each hit earns crypto.”
A have a look at the Wayback Machine reveals that Gudtrip additionally modified its web site to weaken the connection between smoking and incomes crypto. A snapshot from mid-April reveals a picture of a telephone with the Gudtrip app open, with “each hit earns crypto” prominently displayed beneath the corporate brand. In the present day, the telephone with the app continues to be there, however the house beneath the brand is clean. It positive appears that the corporate is attempting to fade out the unique concept — toke to get Bitcoin, or sorry, toke and get Bitcoin?
So in any case of that, my query was answered: The vape was actual. However you’ll not, in actual fact, get Bitcoin with each hit.
Further reporting by Sean Hollister.
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