Gudtrip is a cannabis vape pen from blockchain hardware manufacturer Puffpaw that is touting its ability to allow consumers to earn bitcoin while they smoke weed. Each of the company’s individual vape pen products has $2-3 worth of bitcoin attached to it, which can be redeemed via a QR code or NFC connection within the company’s associated mobile app. While Gudtrip has been criticized for effectively gamifying smoking marijuana, they claim that there is no direct reward tied to hitting the vape pen and seemingly have changed language on their website that previously claimed “Every hit earns crypto.”
Currently, Gudtrip’s vape pen is sold only in California, where recreational cannabis is legal. Buyers activate the pen by scanning a QR code or tapping via NFC to connect it to the Gudtrip app, which unlocks the bitcoin reward as an upfront loyalty payment. The app then tracks puff-seconds of usage and displays the data purely as a personal awareness feature, much like a step counter or sleep tracker on a fitness device. Users can check in daily to build streaks that boost non-monetary virtual points awarded in the app, but according to Gudtrip, those points exist only for record-keeping inside the app and cannot be redeemed for cash, products, or any other value. Puffpaw describes Gudtrip as building a user-powered network that mixes cannabis, Bitcoin, and artificial intelligence.
Gudtrip has opted for using bitcoin for their crypto rewards program rather than creating their own crypto token out of thin air. Many marketing gimmicks have been tried around crypto rewards that turned out to be nothing more than pump and dump schemes by many businesses over the years, including in the marijuana industry. Perhaps the most notorious crossover between the crypto and marijuana industries was Potcoin. Dennis Rodman infamously went to North Korea on a trip that was sponsored by the marijuana-themed altcoin. The promotion drove an immediate price surge, with the coin jumping nearly 97% to more than $0.18 shortly after Rodman arrived in Pyongyang on June 13, 2017, lifting its market capitalization near $40 million. However, after Potcoin hit an all-time high of roughly $0.51 in late 2017, it has since lost more than 99% of its value and now trades around $0.0008.
With all that said, reporting from DL News has indicated Puffpaw did at one point explicitly tell customers that a token would be launched in the future in a now-deleted post on X. Additionally, reward points in crypto-related apps are oftentimes eventually converted to crypto tokens with real monetary value. Previous reporting from Protos also indicates Gudtrip previously said rewards would be made via a token known as VAPE.
Gudtrip has also faced some backlash due to the perceived gamification of vaping (a characterization that the company explicitly rejects). Health researchers raised specific concerns to DL News after reviewing the product’s marketing. Joshua Gowin, an associate professor who studies frequent cannabis use, said gamifying cannabis use certainly sounds like habit-formation is the goal. Janna Cousijn, who leads the Neuroscience of Addiction Lab at Erasmus University Rotterdam, called it potentially a very dangerous and unethical device that could stimulate the development of addiction. Other experts warned that incentives tied to frequent use could impair health decisions and increase risks such as anxiety, memory issues, and respiratory effects.
In response, Gudtrip founder Reffo Tse posted on X to correct what he called factual errors in media coverage. Tse wrote that the product records puff-seconds for user awareness only and that there is no financial reward of any kind tied to consumption. He emphasized that the bitcoin loyalty payment is issued upfront to every customer and is not scaled to, gated by, or associated with the level, frequency, or duration of use. “We believe that an adult in a legal market who has visibility into their own consumption is better positioned to avoid problematic use than one who does not,” Tse added.
The gamification of everything is becoming an increasing concern of many, and crypto often plays a key role in this trend of turning the entire world into one big casino. One recent example is Tuyo, a DeFi-powered Visa debit card that runs on crypto and includes a “buy now, pay maybe” feature that randomly waives fees on selected purchases through an undisclosed algorithm. The system frames ordinary spending as a game of chance, with critics describing it as engineered addiction that preys on the same psychological triggers found in casinos and loot boxes.
Prediction markets have drawn similar scrutiny. Platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket allow bets on real-world events including elections, but reports show campaign staffers have used non-public internal polling data to place profitable trades before the information reached the public. A U.S. soldier is also facing federal charges related to prediction market trades surrounding the capture of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro. These prediction market platforms have suspended users for suspected insider activity and are increasingly cooperating with law enforcement, but regulators and lawmakers continue to highlight the uneven playing field that favors those with inside information.
Gudtrip itself also includes the ability for awarded bitcoin to be seamlessly transferred to other more speculative, AI-directed investments such as decentralized finance (DeFi) and prediction markets. The website claims, “Users can choose to allocate eligible rewards into open-source AI agent tools that explore opportunities across DeFi (decentralized-finance), Gudtrip-native incentives, prediction markets, and selected RWA (real world assets) strategies.”
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