One of the game changing technologies one can ever see in the 21st century is Block chain in and in my opinion it has turned the world upside down. After reading the article thoroughly again and again I found some critical opportunities for the profession like accounting that can ultimately reap the benefits. In the profession of accounting it is very necessary to keep the ledgers and the transactions up to date and get them audited for the second approval. In the scenario of the block chain an audit trail is created and the data is included in the blocks linked so that the important information gets piled up and a chain of blocks is built (In the black, 2018).
This is what I feel is one of the greatest opportunity for the accountants as they will be aware of the entry and the exit of the users and the blocks cannot be eliminated. Also this technology helps in reconciling the balance with the companies, clients, tax authorities as well as banks and this again creates an ease for the accountants. According to my experience and knowledge, the accountants once get in contact with the block chain can avoid the preparation of the private ledgers and he would not be required to enter into deep processing and reconciling (Kozlowski, 2018).
Further, in the world of the endless transactions and the digital world, in my view accountants have also reaped benefits from block chain technology in the form of reduction of the fraud and errors in the overall accounting process. The best part of the block chain is the identification of the identity, as it reflects who is authorized to work upon and who has the access to it in particular (Shyshkova, 2018).
According to my perspective, accountants have to involve with lot of clients at the same time and each client has its own confidential data and information. Form the point of view of the hackers it becomes difficult for them to have each and every system to get into the main system to decode the information. This again, in my understanding, seems to be one of the most important opportunity for the accountants to deal with the A class clients (Dai and Vasarhelyi, 2017).
Therefore from the overall reading and with regards to the knowledge of the accounting profession it can be concluded, that block chain is not a threat rather it is a boon to the accounting profession as it itself seems to be a technology that is based on accountancy. Hence, I believe it is not only fruitful for accountants but also assist CPA firms to strengthen their processes and audits, to make sure the records are accurate and truthful.
References
Dai, J. and Vasarhelyi, M.A., 2017. Toward blockchain-based accounting and assurance. Journal of Information Systems, 31(3), pp.5-21.
In the black, (2018) Blockchain: how does it work? [Online] Available from https://www.intheblack.com/articles/2017/11/09/blockchain-how-does-it-work [Accessed on 17th October 2019].
Kozlowski, S., 2018. An audit ecosystem to support blockchain-based accounting and assurance. In Continuous Auditing: Theory and Application (pp. 299-313). Emerald Publishing Limited.
Shyshkova, N., 2018. Prospects for the Implementation of Blockchain in Accounting. Accounting and Finance, (2), pp.61-68.
