ABSTRACT
Blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies offer new tamper-proof ways to verify identity and ownership, to make near instant payments without the need for the involvement of third parties, to store value (e.g. through cryptocurrency), to facilitate peer-to-peer fundraising and lending (e.g. ICOs and STOs), to automate the execution of contractual agreements and related workflows (e.g. via smart contracts), to improve auditability, to distribute data storage, and to do all of this more securely and at lower cost. The transformative impact of blockchain technologies has been equated to the advent of the internet. Accounting strategic leaders have contended that blockchain technology is fundamentally an accounting technology, given its role in facilitating accounting-related workflows like measuring and reporting financial information, ascertaining asset ownership and value, accounting for asset ownership transfer, accounting for transaction payments, recording transactions, verifying and authorizing transactions, auditing transactions, and quantifying and mitigating risk. In this chapter, we provide an overview of blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies, how they work, the business value and use cases, some of the key issues associated with them, and their implications for accountants.
