> Why were were booted from Stripe? Is it because we are in the marijuana industry?
yup
yup
IMO it will take all fifty states, DC and the federal government legalizing marijuana before industries like banking and insurance are comfortable with doing business with anyone associated with the marijuana industry.
And then there's the fact that many financial regulatory bodies are INCREDIBLY conservative.
I get that Stripe can (and should) do business with whomever they choose. This guy's rant aside, I think the fringe business issues surrounding emerging industries are really interesting.
Here's another example: Technically Uber has been operating in a legal grey area for a while (not unlike this software). What if companies like Stripe refused to do business with them because of their quasi-legal business? AirBnB?
I think so... As others have pointed out (including the Stripe CEO apparently) the banking industry is very paranoid about the legal marijuana industry right now. There is just too much grey area, even in states where it's legal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Choke_Point
As for Uber and ABB, although there has been a lot of press around them and some setbacks for them here and there I just don't think people get nearly as excited about them as they are about the recent relaxation of marijuana laws. People get very hyped about marijuana (and drugs in general) being legal; it seems like one of those issues that people are pretty passionate about, whether for or against.
Probably. There's often a significant legal difference between selling something intended as a general use tool that happens to have utility in illegal enterprises and selling something that is specifically designed and marketed as a tool for a specific class of criminal enterprise.
We've all seen and heard how abusive the Feds can be when they want to make a point - this is what keeps a lot of these businesses weary of getting involved in this industry.
Here's an article about that: http://www.vice.com/read/colorado-bankers-are-still-scared-o...
Frankly, it's a felony to support the drug trade (including marijuana) in any capacity.
I didn't make the laws... just pointing it out. A lot of people think that since their state supports marijuana, then everyone should... but in reality businesses not in your state, especially banking institutions, have a lot of incentive to not participate. It's unreasonable to get mad at your banking institution (Stripe in this case) because they pulled the plug on a very risky customer who might have gotten them put under the Fed spotlight.
Fertilizer? Grow lamps? Water?
You're going to have to draw a line somewhere, 'support' is such a wide term you could technically shut down the power company for supporting the drug trade.
I think the description should at least contain a 'knowingly' and 'primarily' otherwise any garden center is at risk of being shut down.
> A few months ago we started using Stripe as they payment gateway for our marijuana regulatory compliance software
It's pretty painfully obvious this company was "knowingly" and "primarily" supporting drug trade.
[citation needed]
They sure worded that poorly.
These are Paypal levels of communication, and from stories linked elsewhere in this thread, not an incident.