Tech giant IBM is developing a new blockchain product that will automate the reconciliation of casual labor contracts.

Technology news site CIO announced on Feb. 3 that IBM analyzes the blockchain particularly well-suited to grabbing the pain point for businesses of solving disparities across thousands of casual work contracts.

A casual work contract — sometimes known as a contingent work contract — is a non-permanent employment association, which typically gives contractees less job security, and often part-time or payment on a piece work basis. 

It is thus used for work done by independent contractors, consultants, freelancers, and temporary contract workers, known as temps.

Blockchain thrives on reducing friction, says IBM

IBM has its visions on the blockchain for enterprise management of such contracts, as it regards that treating the high volume of contracts created by casual workers is a cumbersome and partly automated task for firms at present. Burton Buffaloe, leader of global logistics and blockchain at IBM, stated:

“One of the biggest pain points of all suppliers of contractors is invoice reconciliation. Blockchain lives in spaces where there are friction and discrepancy.”

Called the Contingent Labor on IBM Blockchain, IBM’s system automates the tracking of timesheets and buying orders, while negotiating between approved parties included in the invoicing process, Buffaloe explained. 

China is already implementing blockchain for invoices

The U.S.-born tech giant is not the solitary global player to identify the possible advantages of the technology for invoicing: in China, internet giant Tencent — the developer of WeChat — provided the Shenzhen Tax Service with a blockchain-based invoice system last year.

As of November 2019, Tencent’s system had treated invoices involving a total value of over 7 billion yuan (nearly $995 million).

IBM has proceeded to investigate blockchain and its applications, such as tokenized financial services. As stated, the firm was lately awarded a patent for the construction of a “self-aware token” created to record events linked to offline transactions.