WeChat Tests Blockchain Technology for Company Reimbursements

Tencent, the major tech company behind WeChat, is looking at blockchain technology in order to ease company reimbursements. According to a recent blog post, the first transaction to bypass the multiple manual verification steps was completed in a Shenzhen restaurant.

“Today, the country's first blockchain electronic invoice was opened in Shenzhen Guomao Rotary Restaurant, announcing that Shenzhen has become a pilot city for blockchain electronic invoices nationwide,” the company said in a blog post.

In China, shops can issue two types of receipts –for individuals and for companies. Whenever an employee wants to be compensated for a certain expense, he must request a receipt for a company, providing his company’s unique identification number. After that, the company must review the document, which is filled manually by the merchant, and file it with the respective tax agency.

WeChat aims to eliminate all that paperwork through several blockchain transfers. When making an online payment, one would automatically send the required data to his company and the tax bureau. Tencent claims the entire process will be automated for the end user and it will take about an hour to verify the legitimacy of the receipt.

Several other venues in the city, including a parking lot, auto repair shop and café, have also adopted the system and the company hopes that even more will join them soon.

“It is often easy to overestimate the short-term impact of new technologies and underestimate the long-term impact of new technologies, as is the blockchain. And we believe that the influence of a new technology will ultimately depend on what people who use it can do for everyone,” Tencent noted in the blog post.

In May, Tencent announced it has partnered with the regional  tax authorities, in order to tackle fraud.