The menace of illicit seeds continues to haunt farmers across the globe. And when it’s the festive season, the problem starts mushrooming in almost all countries and continents, irrespective of whether it is India in Asia, Ecuador in South America, Georgia in Europe, or Kenya, Egypt, Ghana, and Tanzania in Africa.

TAXMAP®, an e-invoicing and tax filing platform based on the use of blockchain bookkeeping and digital tax stamps, has been awarded a UK Smart Grant of £500,000 from Innovate UK. The grant will be used by TAXMAP to provide e-commerce companies with a real-time, cross-border tax and audit compliance solution.

Two recent articles in this publication specifically caught my eye and set in progress the compilation of this article. The first, ITSA Hits Back Over Tax Stamp Criticism, appeared in the June 2020 edition followed by Blockchain and Excise Supply Chains: Hype, Conjecture and Reality, in July.

Blockchain has generated nothing short of hysteria in the technology world. Blockchain made its big public debut in tandem with a new form of currency, the volatile but very real bitcoin, the world's first crypto-currency that many thought would be the end to traditional money.

The International Tax Stamp Association (ITSA) has responded to criticism of paper-based tax stamps in a new report on the use of blockchain technology for collecting excise duties.