The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) has issued a guide to blockchain, a distributed ledger technology that stores and disseminates information in secure manner. Its new report, “Divided we fall, distributed we stand: A professional accountant’s guide to distributed ledgers and blockchain,” examines how examples of blockchain in use are showing signs of enhanced trust in financial transactional business.
However, the report also notes that despite how much discussion surrounds blockchain, the technology is still in the early stages of adoption and its benefits will depend on how well it can scale.
According to the ACCA, blockchain technology is particularly useful in business processes that are characterized by inefficiencies, like trade finance, or that exist because of lack of trust, such as know your customer requirements in financial services; or industries that depend on supply chains with poor visibility, like global garment supply chains.
“For the accountancy profession, distributed ledgers might help with tasks particularly linked to recording and tracking of information,” stated Narayanan Vaidyanathan, head of technology insight at ACCA and lead author of the report. “In audit, for example, this might open up the possibility of basing the opinion on the entire data-set rather than a sample. Also, rather than relying on an annual snap-shot, a more on-going view of business performance might become possible.”
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