The Chinese government listed blockchain in its “Thirteenth Five-Year” National Informatization Plan from 2015, and since that time the nation has been working diligently toward the incorporation of the technology into daily life. China has just announced that it will use blockchain technology for social taxation and the issuing of electronic invoices.

The government’s announcement that it “will utilize blockchain technology for social taxation and electronic invoice issuance matters,” has been met with silence from the mainstream media. China has already launched a test of its own cryptocurrency based on the technology, so these initiatives should be able to build on each other.  This will also be a large-scale test of a government’s ability to collect taxes more efficiently, considering China has the biggest economy on earth.

Moving forward, experts claim that we will all see more and more innovative uses of blockchain technology as its potential is more fully realized. Transparency and security are both absolute essentials in a digital age, and China appears to be recognizing that need and putting this powerful tech to use through policy, enforcing theft through taxation.  But it’s unclear as of yet, just when China will begin using Blockchain to tax. Blockchain technology has been proposed for use in elections already due to its potential for both transparency and security. It’s these features that make it appealing for taxation as well.

Furthermore, we should also see implementation at the city level in China, as several local and provincial governments have recently promulgated pro-blockchain policies. In fact, a smart cities initiative has already enticed a Chinese automaker to integrate the tech into its business model. Additionally, blockchain-based industrial parks have gone up in Chengdu, Hangzhou, and other major cities, and agencies at different levels of government have created blockchain R&D teams. –Futurism

Tax professionals in the United Kingdom have also discussed implementing Blockchain to ease the financial burden of collecting taxes from their peasants.

With the good, comes the bad.  Once governments begin using technology such as Blockchain, they will do it with efforts to steal productivity or funds or liberty from civilians.  Governments around the world (especially the United States) are losing support rapidly and as such, implementing stifling means of collecting taxes will almost certainly rile up the masses.