Cannabis design firm 14th Round hopes to boost consumer confidence, partners with solo sciences for cryptographic authentication tag with vaporizer brands

 

Leading cannabis design and technology firm 14th Round has partnered with solo sciences to add its solo*CODE authentication tag to 14th Round’s vaporizer brands. The deal further advances solo’s efforts to address regulatory compliance throughout the entire supply chain, enhancing product safety for consumers.

The company says that the solo*CODE tag is the world’s first cryptographically secured product authentication system.

Thanks to the collaboration, solo sciences trust mark authentication will be a default feature for 14th Round’s high-profile cannabis vaporizer brands. 14th Round creates and supplies custom hardware and packaging for an estimated 40-plus percent of California’s vaporizer market, the largest in the world. 14th Round is also the No. 1 vaporizer and packaging supplier in North America.

“Through this collaboration, we intend to set a standard the whole industry can embrace,” said 14th Round CEO Trent Overholt. “It became clear to both of us that anti-counterfeiting wasn’t a nice-to-have (feature), but rather a necessity for consumer safety, much like how seatbelts and airbags became default features in properly designed and engineered cars.”

The legal cannabis industry has grown substantially in recent years, yet dangerous counterfeit products remain a threat to the safety of both recreational and medicinal users. Solo sciences’ technology solves this by restricting counterfeiters’ ability to create fake packaging. Unlike other authentication technologies, the solo*CODE — a unique identifying mark — can be applied to any pre-existing product without the need for packaging redesign.

Solo sciences began by helping governments and brands protect users from counterfeit products. The company’s team includes experts with backgrounds including organizations such as NSA, CIA and DoD who created an innovative, mobile-first approach. This led to the development of a cryptographically secure digital trust mark – a unique identifier on each package of every product.

Each mark is authenticated using a free mobile app that:

• Protects against counterfeiting with a closed-loop authentication system
• Connects consumers with brands through detailed product insights and data
• Drives consumer loyalty and showcases products

BOOSTS CONSUMER CONFIDENCE

Consumers scan the solo*CODE with the proprietary app that decrypts it to verify product authenticity and provide consumers with detailed product information. The app also provides discount opportunities and the ability to discover new products available in stores.

“To support this nascent legal industry’s continued growth, companies must collaborate with one another and government regulators to implement solutions that put customer safety first,” said solo sciences Founder and CEO Ashesh (Alex) Shah. “We are proud to be working with the leading platform 14th Round, who, like us at solo sciences, find product quality, consistency and safety to be paramount.”

In November, leading cannabis compliance technology provider Akerna announced it has taken a majority stake in solo sciences. The investment in solo and the deal with 14th Round strengthen Akerna’s efforts to create the pre-eminent global technology to address the entire supply chain and its regulatory bodies through accountability and transparency.

To learn more about how solo sciences groundbreaking technology enables consumer safety from counterfeit cannabis products, visit: solosciences.com.

Denver-based Akerna is a global regulatory compliance technology company in the cannabis space. The company is the developer of the cannabis industry’s first seed-to-sale enterprise resource planning (ERP) software technology, MJ Platform. Akerna’s service offerings also include  Leaf Data Systems and solo sciences tech platform. Since its establishment in 2010, the company has tracked more than $16 billion in cannabis sales.

For more information, visit www.akerna.com, solosciences.com and 14thrnd.com.