Dennis Rodman’s latest trip to North Korea is sponsored by the Bitcoin of weed

Sometimes, life gets so weird that it’s beyond parody.

Take, for instance, the announcement that Dennis Rodman will not only be making a return trip to North Korea, but he’s doing so with the backing(Opens in a new tab) of PotCoin(Opens in a new tab), a cryptocurrency used for the legalized cannabis industry.

In a video posted YouTube, Rodman appears alongside an unnamed representative of PotCoin, who points out that, oh hey!, Rodman is friends with both Donald Trump and Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un (which is kind of like saying you have both the plague and black lung).

Okay, but, to pose a question we’re asking a a lot in 2017: what the hell is going on?!

What the hell is PotCoin?

It’s like Bitcoin for weed. That’s it, really.

We all know what Bitcoin is: a cryptocurrency that’s been resurgent in recent headlines for its skyrocketing value.

PotCoin is a cryptocurrency you can use online to legally buy cannabis, one of a few that launched before the legal marijuana industry really got going in the United States. And, yes, there’s a PotWallet(Opens in a new tab) for keeping your PotCoin all together.

There are security advantages to using the cryptocurrency. When PotCoin launched in 2014, it seemed that it may help legal cannabis businesses that couldn’t get banks to work with them(Opens in a new tab).

But, a few years later and there hasn’t been much growth(Opens in a new tab) for the cryptocurrency. That’s probably why it’s sponsoring this sideshow-like Rodman trip to North Korea — it’s a good chance to simply get PotCoin’s name out there. (Exhibit A: this story!)

While marijuana, either medical or recreational, is legal in 26 states(Opens in a new tab) and Washington, D.C., getting both buyers and sellers to adopt cryptocurrency is an uphill challenge.

According to an industry source, the main issue is the difficulty in purchasing cryptocurrency like PotCoin with cash. Which is a fair point. Bitcoins itself has had its own obstacles(Opens in a new tab), spiking value aside, in catching on.

That’s not to say it’s impossible; POSaBIT, another cryptocurrency company, has found some success(Opens in a new tab) in working with a few dozen cannabis dispensaries in Washington state. But reading the rather complicated process of what a buyer has to go through to purchase in cryptocurrency, it’s understandable many shy away.

Right now, there are only a handful of locations(Opens in a new tab) across the globe currently accepting PotCoin as a means of currency (and North Korea isn’t one of them).

As of Thursday morning(Opens in a new tab), one PotCoin is worth only $0.179644

Weed and North Korea? Really?

For years, there have been tales of North Korea being a marijuana utopia with “marijuana plants growing freely along the roadsides(Opens in a new tab)” and allegedly, bags of pot available(Opens in a new tab) for purchase in markets.

But an (Opens in a new tab)Associated Press(Opens in a new tab) story(Opens in a new tab) from January 2017 did a bit of debunking on that one, pointing out that a lot of what was being sold was just hemp — no THC — and assured us that, yes, marijuana is illegal and that you can land in jail for a very long time if charged and do you really want to risk it?

Point is, we don’t really know if PotCoin has any real interest in North Korea. Mashable has reached out to the company for comment on the association with Rodman.

But a previous Rodman-to-North Korea trip was backed by Irish betting company Paddy Power(Opens in a new tab) who eventually backed out because(Opens in a new tab) having any association with a brutal regime is apparently bad branding.

So why is Rodman going back?

We don’t really know.

It’s Rodman’s fifth trip to North Korea and he insists it’s all about the roundball, telling reporters(Opens in a new tab), “My purpose is to actually see if I can keep bringing sports to North Korea, so that’s the main thing.”

Beyond that, everyone’s pretty mum.

National Security spokesman Michael Anton to CNN that the Trump administration has nothing to do with this trip.

But Trump himself offered differing views on Rodman’s previous visits, praising him in 2013 (when he was connected to Celebrity Apprentice, of course) before turning on him in 2014.

Thomas A. Shannon Jr., the U.S.’s under secretary of state for political affairs, told the (Opens in a new tab)New York Times(Opens in a new tab), “We are aware of [Rodman’s] visit. We wish him well, but we have issued travel warnings to Americans and suggested they not travel to North Korea for their own safety.”

And, no, as far as anyone knows, Rodman had nothing to do with Tuesday’s release(Opens in a new tab) of American Otto Warmbier from North Korea.

UPDATED, 12:58 p.m. ET to include comment from advisor that Trump administration has had no contact with Rodman about this trip.

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