Digital Financial Reporting

There are a lot of blockchain-related companies and other underlying infrastructure providers that are trying to reengineer accounting.  Here is a partial list:

• Alastria
• Auditchain
• Axoni
• Balance3
• BBiller
• Blockstack
• ChainThis
• Global Legal Entity Identifier (infrastructure)
• GovernanceChain
• Hyperledger (blockchain infrastructure) (this is a business oriented approach; scalable, secure, industrial strength blockchain technologies for business)
• Ledgerium
• OpenFiling
• Pacio
• PayPie
• Request Network

It will be interesting to see if any succeed. Here are some good videos that explain Bitcoin, Blockchain, and Triple-Entry accounting: Bitcoin is more than money. Blockchain is a new way to record and store transactions of all sorts. This video explains the basics of how bitcoin works. This video explains how triple-entry accounting works.  This is a pretty decent video that explains the implications of triple-entry accounting.  This is an OK explanation of triple-entry accounting.

This paper created by the UK government is one of the most comprehensive yet approachable resources for understanding distributed ledgers.

Integrating semantics and blockchain.

AICPA: Evolution of Auditing: From the Traditional Approach to the Future Audit

Conclusion

Auditing has made great strides in the past decade, but it has not seemingly kept pace with the real-time economy. Some auditing approaches and techniques that were valuable in the past now appear outdated. Also, the auditing evolution has reached a critical juncture whereby auditors may either lead in promoting and adopting the future audit or continue to adhere to the more traditional paradigm in some manner. Future audit approaches would likely require auditors, regulators, and standards setters to make significant adjustments. Such adjustments might include (1) changes in the timing and frequency of the audit, (2) increased education in technology and analytic methods, (3) adoption of full population examination instead of sampling, (4) re-examination of concepts such as materiality and independence, and (5) mandating the provisioning of the audit data standard. Auditors would need to possess substantial technical and analytical skills that are currently not components of most traditional four year university accounting programs.

SOX introduced the first major change in the mandate of the public company audit. This new prescription focuses on auditor assessment of internal controls, a very important step in the assurance of future systems that will be modular, computerized, and often outsourced. The accounting profession now faces an opportunity to further elevate the audit to a higher level of automation. It is imperative that accountants ultimately lead the way in adoption and implementation of the future audit such that they continue to be the professionals of choice relative to audit engagements of the future.

Feasibility, Desirability, Viability

• Desirability is explored through Customer Segments, Customer Relationships, Channels and Value Proposition.
• Feasibility is explored through Key Resources, Key Activities and Key Partners.
• Viability is explored through Cost Structure and Revenue Streams.

Business Model Environment

Generally speaking, every major brand collapse you can think of started with the abandonment of their competitive advantage.

• Kodak invented digital cameras, then neglected the technology.
• Department stores thrived on convenience, but their disdain for internet shopping made their services harder to engage with.
• Nokia and Motorola had the phone market sewn up, then sat on their hands while two others took their Innovative title away from them.

Multidimensional Accounting Information