The Impact of Blockchain Technology on Accounting Practices

This report explores the implications of blockchain technology within the financial and accounting sectors. It begins by defining blockchain and its key features, including decentralization, immutability, and transparency. The report then examines how blockchain can benefit accountants, such as streamlining auditing processes and improving efficiency. It also highlights the challenges, including scalability issues and the complexity of the technology. The report also addresses potential conflicts within the blockchain community. The report concludes by emphasizing the need for further research and knowledge mobilization to harness the full potential of blockchain in accounting, advocating for a more streamlined and efficient industry. The report references several key studies to support its arguments.

Information
management
systems

Blockchain technology
■ A blockchain in simple terms known to be as a time-stamped
series of immutable record of data that is administered by group
of computers not retained by any single entity (Crosby et al,
2016).
■ There is not any central authority to blockchain network and as it
is a shared and absolute ledger, the info in it is open for
everyone and anyone to see

Blockchain technology
■ Blockchain technology also includes its three pillars including
decentralization, immutability and transparency (Iansiti and
Lakhani, 2017).
■ Ever since the technology has come into reality, various
researches have been started for the usefulness of this
technology in various sectors. This technology serves as reliable
platform and there are several new things using the blockchain
technology like smart contracts

Blockchain technology and
accountants
■ This booming technology provides a mechanism providing the
highest degree of accountability for everyone.
■ Blockchain technology can also support accountants to achieve
clarity in relation to available resource and responsibilities of
their firms and also make the resources free to embrace on
valuation and planning irrespective of recordkeeping (Kokina,
Mancha and Pachamanova, 2017) .

Blockchain technology and
accountants
■ One of the key aspect of blockchain that accountants should be
motivated about is its ability to reduce audit time. Considering
small agreements, various functions of auditing can be
automated which will decrease the time, an auditor required to
look after the records.
■ Some of the other benefits of Blockchain to accountants include
improved efficiency as well designed blockchain are fast and
powerful databases and getting data into and out of the system
can be done more efficiently that networking with legacy and

Blockchain technology and
problems
■ The first issue that blockchain presents include limited
scalability, low performance and complexity. This new technology
involves a completely new vocabulary as it has made
cryptography as mainstream (Scott, Loonam and Kumar, 2017).
■ Other than this network size is also a big issue with this new
technology as blockchain are not so much resistant to bad actors
and it also requires large network of users.

Blockchain technology and
problems
■ Blockchain can also be slow and cumbersome as due to their
complexity and distributed nature, the transactions in blockchain
can take a while to process, definitely associated to “traditional”
payment systems like debit cards or credit cards.
■ There can also be public disagreements amid different
community sectors as blockchain protocols offer an opportunity
to digitize governance models and these disagreements are a
notable attribute of the blockchain industry.

Conclusion
■ Ultimately, the power of blockchain is combined with present
accounting software has far reaching implications for the whole
sector. In relation with accounting, this new technology develops
a more streamlined industry that is less focused on the regular
tasks for crunching number.
■ There is a real need for both knowledge and research
mobilization to improve the association between the blockchain
community – the innovators who will make the future of
blockchain recordkeeping.

References
Crosby, M., Pattanayak, P., Verma, S. and Kalyanaraman,
V., 2016. Blockchain technology: Beyond bitcoin. Applied
Innovation, 2(6-10), p.71.
Iansiti, M. and Lakhani, K.R., 2017. The truth about
blockchain. Harvard Business Review, 95(1), pp.118-127.
Kokina, J., Mancha, R. and Pachamanova, D., 2017.
Blockchain: Emergent industry adoption and implications
for accounting. Journal of Emerging Technologies in
Accounting, 14(2), pp.91-100.
Scott, B., Loonam, J. and Kumar, V., 2017. Exploring the
rise of blockchain technology: Towards distributed
collaborative organizations. Strategic Change, 26(5),

THANK
YOU