Replacing Financial Audits with Blockchain: The Verification Issue

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the features of blockchain technology from the viewpoint of those responsible for external financial reporting and their auditors. Financial professionals worry about the potential disconnect between digital and real-world transactions that can create potentially misleading illusions-of-truth. The largest objection from financial professionals surrounds the widespread assertion that the consensus verification may replace the financial statements or their required audit. The discussion explains why verified “on chain” data falls considerably short of audited financial statements. In a structured literature review, this work contrasts the treatment of blockchain’s consensus verification feature in IT and accounting literature over a four-year period, showing a dramatic increase in this topic but little convergence between IT and financial communities on the problems with blockchain verification in auditing contexts. Knowing the auditing community’s concerns, as explored in this work, can help direct future developments in blockchain technology and target implementation suited to user needs.

KEYWORDS:

• Blockchain
• distributed ledger
• consensus verification
• audit
• accounting
• databases

Acknowledgments

For helpful comments, I am grateful to five anonymous reviewers, participants at the 2021 61^st IACIS Annual Conference, A. Faye Borthick, Alex Koohang, and Kevin Floyd.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).