I went looking for an AI vape that gives you Bitcoin for smoking

The crypto weed vape found me on 4/20, a big holiday for cannabis lovers everywhere. It landed on Slack with a picture of a man blowing off steam, the words “every hit gives Bitcoin” written on it. They said they were selling a device called Gudtrip, and I thought everything about it sounded fake.

So I went looking for it. What I found, after weeks of research, dozens of emails, and a lot of international effort, was even more ridiculous than I thought.

My first port of call was Gudtrip websitewhich only made vaping seem like a fantasy. The company’s description was tech buzzword bingo – this wasn’t just a vape that offered Bitcoin, it was “the first cannabis device” combining “valuable cannabis, blockchain rewards, and AI-powered tools in one product.” This rumored device wasn’t just riding on the crypto hype: now AI was also in the mix.

But I found one sign that things were real. The site said its vapes are available in California, while New York was also listed as “coming soon.” And there was a brand name behind it: Edgea company that bills itself as the “world’s first smart vape” for nicotine. In other words, it should encourage quitting nicotine through a mechanism that, like Gudtrip, I did not understand.

I went to the Gudtrip accounts to find out more. The product seemed to exist quietly he started in March. Otherwise, many articles also mentioned that by using Gudtrip, you can earn Bitcoin. Gudtrip notes on X for writing this reads, “Smoking weed and getting @Bitcoin.” Someone he asks: “New Yorkers ready to smoke and get bitcoin?” On Threads, Gudtrip wrote about “building wealth one punch at a time” is he explained that users can “⁡Earn Bitcoin from any draw.” A pulsating TikTok video he described vaping as “a lot of things that give you back.”

It was enough to convince me that this product could be real. This was, in a way, making it a real vape. But I didn’t understand at all how it worked. Can vape mine Bitcoin? I emailed Gudtrip to find out.

Gudtrip didn’t get back to me right away, so I started looking for more information. On LinkedIn, I found “Reffo T., listed as the CEO of Gudtrip, “a high-end cannabis brand that turns consumption into an income-generating activity.” He wrote a blog post coaxing dispensaries selling these vapes. “The product sells itself,” he wrote. “Bitcoin just makes sure customers remember where they got it from.”

Weed is legal in California, but sales are regulated. So I asked the California Department of Cannabis Control, which licenses and regulates commercial activities in the state, whether they allow reward-based products. Jordan Traverso, deputy director of the department of public affairs, said the agency had not heard of Gudtrip’s AI crypto vape. “We were not already well with Gudtrip medicine but came to the creator to learn more about his side,” he wrote. That made us the two of us.

At this point, I had reached the limit of what I could do from London. So I asked my friends in the US to help me. Gudtrip said it is available in California at exactly two stores. It just so happened that a friend of mine was in the area to drop by the dispensary to check: Is this vape really available?

Walking through the door NUG Cannabis Dispensary in Oakland, we found the answer: Gudtrip’s big poster immediately promised customers “Crypto Rewards over time.” It read clearly, “Get on board. Get Bitcoin.”

Obviously, we bought it. The AI ​​weed vape costs $67 after tax.

It was then that Gudtrip responded – and somehow, things took a turn for the worse.

The whole “paying people to smoke weed” thing sounded appealing, but it didn’t sound legitimate. (It doesn’t sound healthy, either. Researchers talk to crypto outlet DL News he said encouraging daily use is dangerous and addictive.)

It seems that Gudtrip agreed. When I asked Gudtrip what vape actually does, how the reward works, and how the company responds to criticism that it encourages people to consume crypto marijuana, Gudtrip’s CTO, Rishi Kommuri, emailed back a few paragraphs. The line that stood out to me the most: “it is illegal to provide financial incentives for any type of use etc. in any way.”

Despite what the Gudtrip website, the X account, the Threads account, the TikTok account, and the big sign at the NUG Cannabis Dispensary promised, Kommuri now says that vape did. no I will give you Bitcoin to search.

“Bitcoin reward is removed from consumption,” he wrote. “It is paid in advance upon opening, for each customer, and has no downtime, session calculation, daily use, or stripes. Customers who do not use the device after opening receive the same reward of 2$-60$ BTC as those who use it regularly. This is a stable framework for consumers – Bitcoin instead of points – and Bitcoin in the SEC group is a trust of WeCF’. It is compatible with cannabis laws in every market we work with.”

So, you don’t get “Bitcoin from any noise”? A videos on the company’s website it says “every breath connects to your phone and earns bitcoins and gudtrips in real time” – but it doesn’t? Because that would be illegal?

The Gudtrip app only made things more confusing. When a friend went to download it via a QR-code on a picture at the NUG Oakland dispensary (provided via TestFlight, not Apple’s App Store), the download page promised something else. The preview image made it clear that the app rewards vape – not with crypto, but with Gudtrip Points. What were Gudtrip Points? What would he be redeemed for? We also reached out to Gudtrip to find out.

A second email from Kommuri reiterated, quickly: “The main point we wanted to make clear was that Gudtrip’s Bitcoin reward is linked to activation, not consumption.” And again, you don’t get rewarded for pride! “Gudtrip Points are a separate, non-cash system that is tracked by an app. They are not blockchain rewards and are not redeemable for cash, cryptocurrency, or marijuana.”

The arguments were piling up.

Kommuri explained this: “What is shown in the image was a legacy from some of our smart products… And “crypto payments that continue over time”? This “refers to our future part of the management of the program.” Yes, the program also wants to provide a plan for your crypto portfolio.
Therefore, the per-puff point system is a part of the past, and crypto portfolio-managing agent AI does not exist. What else does this do, other than the obvious?

The only way to know what a vape has done is to use it. However, our code of conduct prohibits us from owning cryptocurrencies individually, so we registered a Bitcoin investment account. And our legal team forbids us from writing about drug abuse, so we also ordered a water pump from the car to simulate puffing a vape.

For connecting vape to Gudtrip’s app, we were rewarded with $2 worth of Bitcoin. So far, so good. But could there be more to the way we’ve changed?

When a friend vape in the copier, the top bar inside the app filled up. Points were written. He pumped beyond 20 seconds of toking day that “stimulated” our “health,” but no Bitcoin was dispersed beyond the first amount. There are separate, dedicated software pages to keep track of your current price and toke collection history, but to get another $2-$60 in Bitcoin, you’ll need to buy a new $67 vape. That’s how they find you.

Meanwhile, as we emailed with Kommuri, several social media posts appeared to be missing from Gudtrip’s account, although it is not clear which ones have been deleted or why. The Google recordings – which, when clicked, say that they are not available – show that one is a TikTok video that uses the words “Put while you breathe,” while the other is an Instagram post with the words “Every click earns crypto.”

A look at the Wayback Machine shows that Gudtrip has also changed his website to weaken the connection between smoking and crypto acquisition. A photo taken in mid-April shows an image of a phone with the Gudtrip app open, with “every tap earns crypto” displayed under the company’s logo. Today, the phone with the app still exists, but the space under the logo doesn’t. It seems that the company is trying to turn off the original idea – toke to take Bitcoin, or sorry, toke and get Bitcoin?

So after all this, my question was answered: The vape was real. But you can’t get Bitcoin with every hit.

Additional reporting by Sean Hollister.