Every day, new systems are being established based on the blockchain principle, using distributed ledger technology to conduct various types of business more efficiently. One example of the type of transaction currently benefitting from this tech is invoice financing. Trading invoices is currently a limited, local market sector. Blockchain-based systems offer a P2P (peer-to-peer) platform for invoice financing that could globalise the market and make the industry more efficient.

Invoice financing is a type of funding that gives instant access to monies tied up in unpaid sales invoices, by managing the value of the invoice. Business owners can sell outstanding invoices to a third party purchaser at a discounted rate so that they get money back on their order more quickly than by waiting for the invoice to be paid in a regular way. When the original debtor does pay the invoice, the business owner gives back the amount of discounted value to the third party who bought the outstanding invoice.

By connecting business owners globally with invoice buyers on the blockchain platform, companies under development like Populous will be able to eliminate any middlemen (such as banks) who might previously have provided the financing to buy invoices. Using smart contracts and native cryptocurrency tokens (in this case PPT), pegged to stable fiat currencies, secure platforms such as this look set to be the future transaction mechanism for global invoice trading.