Tencent to lead development of blockchain-based invoices

Chinese messaging and internet giant Tencent has received the green light to lead in the development of the first international standards for blockchain-based invoices. The Shenzhen-based company revealed that it has the approval of China’s taxation regulators as well as the support of some of the top countries in the blockchain technology industry.

The project was approved by the State Administration of Taxation in China, a report by Chinese outlet Global Times revealed. Named “General Framework for DLT-Based Invoices”, the project reportedly received the support of the U.K., Brazil, Switzerland and Sweden during an international meeting on e-invoice standards.

Tencent, which is the parent company of popular messaging platform WeChat, will partner with the taxation bureau in Shenzhen on the project. The two will also be joined by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology and together, they’ll be responsible for its discussion and revision before it’s published, the report revealed.

According to an analyst who spoke to the outlet, the project is proof to Tencent’s strength in blockchain technology and its rising prominence in the field globally.

Li Ming, the director of the Blockchain Research Department at the China Electronics Standardization Institute, commented, “The project shows China’s industry and market activity in blockchain tech application. E-invoicing is an appropriate field for blockchain application probes and trials currently, which could in turn promote tech development. The elements of transparency, trust and verifiability of the technology are needed for application scenarios involving multiple parties, and they largely improve efficiency.”

Tencent has already had quite some success in the field of blockchain invoicing. The company has been working with Shenzhen City in Southern China for over a year now to issue blockchain invoices and as CoinGeek reported, the project has been quite a success.

The system is reported to have processed 44,000 invoices per day in just its first year for more than 100 sectors of the local economy, covering over 5,000 companies. In total, the system processed over six million invoices, totaling over 4 billion yuan ($554 million).

The blockchain push in China has been on high gear recently, with the country’s president Xi Jinping recently calling on the country to adopt the technology as this is the only way to transform their industries.