Tracking of tax stamps is one of the six use cases of blockchain that is being explored by Philip Morris.

Cigarette company Philip Morris International is reportedly working on a “public blockchain” for tax stamps tracking on cigarette boxes. The tax stamps on the cigarette boxes will indicate that tax has been paid. Traditional way of doing stamp is slow and outdated process, cited reliable sources.

Reportedly, tax stamps are valuable as they cost about $5.50 per packet. These bits of paper are manually dealt with and easily counterfeited. Fraudsters use a high-resolution photocopier to counterfeit the stamps. This costs industry and governments about $100 million a year.

Nitin Manoharan, Global Head of Architecture and Tech Innovation, Philip Morris, reportedly stated at London Blockchain Expo that the company wants to do public blockchains.

As per reliable sources, Philip Morris can single handedly save around $20 million off the bat by automating processes and reducing fraud with transparency and traceability afforded by a blockchain.

Reportedly, in most of the enterprise blockchains, only approved parties can participate. While, Philip Morris’ blockchain will be widely accessible. Anyone would be able to run a node without permission, with an incentive.

Philip Morris wants to ensure the minimum viable ecosystem is attractive to all the shareholders participating in this ecosystem. A reason for taking part and value proposition is required to engage shareholders. The stakeholders are required to be benefitted from the blockchain to make it sustainable, cited reliable sources.

However, Philip Morris is not creating a cryptocurrency or building on top of the public Ethereum blockchain. The company is rather tailoring Ethereum and MultiChain, build-your-own-blockchain platform of Coin Sciences, to make this new open-access network. It has also been speaking with Hyperledger consortium.

According to reliable sources, tracking of tax stamps is one of the six use cases of blockchain that is being explored by Philip Morris. The company has planned to make it live by next year.

Source Credit: https://www.coindesk.com/tobacco-giant-philip-morris-is-building-a-different-kind-of-public-blockchain

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