Shenzhen is known around Asia and the world as one of China’s most important industrial centers, which is saying a lot since the country as a whole is famous for its manufacturing prowess in several fields and areas.
And, more recently, the city is making the news for being a pioneer, this time when it comes to blockchain-related affairs. Roughly six million blockchain invoices have been issues in Shenzhen since the moment of their creation, approximately a year ago, according to local authorities.
An Average Daily Issuance of 44,000
The first blockchain-based invoice was originally issued in the southern end of the city in August 2018. The tax bureau of the metropolis informed this week, quoted by Chinese news agency Xinhua that the average daily issuance of the invoice is 44,000, and the total face value is now up to 3.9 billion yuan (the equivalent of 554 million U.S. dollars) for transactions that cover 113 sectors.
Shenzhen is located in the Guangdong Province, and is the home of dozens of industries and factories. The commercial activity is notable in the metropolis; this is because it has enough production to satisfy the local markets and to export to several parts of the planet. It is now, in addition, a proud home of blockchain technology.
Up to this point, over 5,300 firms in Shenzhen have already signed up for the use of blockchain invoices, a resources that has been on the rise since last August, when a group of restaurants, stores, banks, and markets launched it.
It All Started in a Restaurant
To be more specific, the very first establishment to use blockchain invoices was a Shenzhen restaurant. After being developed by the worldwide known local online company Tencent, along with the tax bureau of Shenzhen, the city piloted the first ever blockchain invoice last August.
A year has already passed and it is fair to assume that it has been received with open arms by the Chinese markets, and now, blockchain invoices are being used in retailing, catering, finance, hospitality, and several other sectors and fields in Shenzhen.
More Related Developments
This year, in the month of March, the city came up with the nation’s first ever blockchain invoice issued for a subway ticket, according to reports from several media outlets. Now, more and more companies want to implement the resource, not only in China, but also at an international scale.
For instance, Standard Chartered, a widely famous British financial institution, recently completed its first blockchain-based supply chain financing transaction as a part of the Digital Guandong project.
The aforementioned Digital Guandong Project is the result of a strategic alliance made by several prominent institutions. Among them are the already mentiond Tencent, China Unicom, China Telecom and China Mobile.
It is clear that the blockchain technology is not only here to stay, but also, that it has tangible benefits and applications to enhance our quality of life as a society and to facilitate processes and transactions that were otherwise problematic and slow.
By Andres Chavez
