Introduction
Institutional adoption of blockchain technology just got better with yet another government agency kicking off migration to the blockchain. This time around, it is the national government of Philippines. In an official statement, the National Printing Office (NPO) of Philippines announced that they are moving all printing of government forms, receipts and invoices to Venom blockchain. This move was aimed at leveraging the benefits of blockchain technology in data management.
While Venom blockchain was chosen by the Philippines government for this initiative, it represents a significant milestone for the entire blockchain industry. The more government institutions adopt blockchain solutions, the closer we get to mass adoption. Lets get into a little detail of why the Philippines government made this move and why Venom was the blockchain of choice for this project.
The challenges of paper invoicing in Philippines
The NPO in Philippines is responsible for printing government receipts, forms and invoices. This agency like any other one is trying hard to weather lots of operational inefficiencies. After considering all alternatives, blockchain technology was chosen as the solution to the many challenges faced by this agency which prints upwards of 6.5 billion forms per year.
The NPO in Philippines have to battle tax evasion as a big challenge in their work. A popular issue in many government finances, some individuals and organizations have devised means to reduce or avoid tax which amounts to a massive loss of money by the government annually. Issuing for fake receipts and falsifying of financial records are popular means by which people in that country evade tax. Moving to the blockchain would make it had for financial data to be compromised or altered in any form. As such the agency hopes to fight tax fraud by adopting a blockchain approach to invoicing.
Another big challenge that this transition to blockchain technology would solve is the cost of printing everything in paper. This represents a huge investment in paper materials, ink, machinery and technical expertise. As inflation in that country is affecting the cost of everything, it is no longer economically viable to continue issuing invoices in print. With blockchain technology, most of the invoices would be available in electronic formats. If there would be need to print, then the receiver would have to bear the cost.
Another big challenge in paper invoicing is that it is rife with corruption. It is far too easy for government representatives in Philippines to engage in illegal invoicing and shady business because of paper invoices. It is far too easy to hide such shady businesses from the public. In order to maintain transparency in this sector and ensure that representatives of government do not get involved in shady business, blockchain technology is the answer.
Finally, since invoicing has to do with financial transactions, security of funds remains a growing challenge. Moving funds in physical cash and paper receipts is very dangerous as it could be lost in transition. Also, paper invoicing exposes financial transactions including the people that are involved. Moving their invoicing to the blockchain would make transactions more secure and insure the security of all transactions and parties transacting.
Blockchain technology to the rescue
The Philippines NPO is leading this digital transformation of receipts in the country. With blockchain-based invoicing method, a lot of challenges would be overcome. For example, the budget for printing receipts in paper would be almost entirely eliminated. Blockchain invoices would remain in electronic format unless the receiver decides to pay for a hardcopy. In this case, the NPO is not responsible for the cost of printing.
Blockchain data is immutable. So the NPO will be able to solve a lot of problems with this feature. For example, taxes would be collected without missing anyone. Financial data stored on the blockchain cannot be changed. So the NPO would be able to receive VAT completely.
Accountability and transparency are other huge deliverables that blockchain invoicing would bring. It would be hard to falsify transactions record because everything stored on the blockchain could be reviewed and checked by whoever cares. So both officials in the Philippines and the people that use the invoices would be able to do business knowing that all records are openly stored on the blockchain.
Why Venom?
The Philippines government checked very well before settling for Venom blockchain. One of the main considerations was scalability. Remember that this is a national project which would definitely need to handle traffic efficiently. The NPO prints in excess of 6.5 billion invoices every year. Thus, Venom was chosen because of it is highly scalable. In essence, it would be able to sufficiently handle the current invoicing demand of the Philippines and any future growth that would come.
Besides scalability, here are other reasons why Venom landed the contract:
Venom Blockchain technology is known for its security, scalability, and efficiency. Venom focuses on distributed ledgers, CBDCs (central bank-backed digital currencies), and asset tokenization. Venom Foundation aims to bring transparency and innovation to the industry as a leading global blockchain company. It endeavors to provide infrastructure to governments and web3 projects while empowering emerging economies in the Middle East and North Africa with its unique technology. source
Finally
This is another huge win for the blockchain industry. The Philippines government has set a good example in blockchain adoption and it is hoped that this project meets and exceeds its goals. Likely, other national governments are watching to follow suite.