Blockchain

Updated: December 11, 2024

This practice aid contains nonauthoritative guidance on how to account for and audit digital assets.

Digital assets and the associated underlying blockchain technology have been expanding rapidly ever since the very first blockchain transaction occurred. Driving this expansion is not only the increase in digital asset popularity but the various forms of digital assets hitting the marketplace enabling entities to enter this space. The digital asset space is an evolving business environment, presenting practitioners with unique risks and complex challenges.

Learn more: Accounting for and auditing of Digital Assets practice aid

 

A broad array of practitioners from CPAs and IT auditors to cybersecurity professionals and those in management roles should gain an understanding of blockchain risk.

Are you thinking of utilizing blockchain technology within your organization? Have you already implemented this technology?
If so, have you assessed associated risks as they relate to:

  • Governance

  • Data

  • Infrastructure

  • Key Management

  • Smart Contracts

Learn more: Blockchain risk: considerations for professionals

Learn about how blockchain technology may affect the audit and assurance profession, from its impact on the financial statement audit to opportunities that may arise in a blockchain-enabled world.

Awareness and understanding of the potential impact of emerging technologies are critical to the success of Chartered Professional Accountants (CPAs) as business leaders and trusted advisors in today’s rapidly changing business environment.

Learn more: Blockchain technology and its potential impact on the audit and assurance profession

The world of blockchain and digital assets comes with its own vocabulary. You may wonder what the difference is between blockchain and distributed ledger technology, or the difference between a digital asset and a stablecoin. By using this resource, you can start to unravel the world of blockchain and digital assets by gaining an understanding of the terms that are used.

Learn more: Blockchain Universal Glossary

Learn about blockchain technology and familiarize yourself with the potential implications, opportunities and risks for capital markets and reporting. Awareness and understanding of the potential impact of emerging technologies are critical to the success of Chartered Professional Accountants (CPAs) as business leaders and trusted advisors in today’s rapidly changing business environment.

Learn more:  The impact of blockchain technology on CPAs

Blockchain Risk: Considerations for Practitioners highlights the unique risks and benefits of blockchain technology, advising that decisions to implement blockchain technology should be made only after careful risk assessment. The report describes specific blockchain-related risks in the areas of governance, infrastructure, data, key management and smart contracts. (Available free from ISACA following website registration.)

Published by American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and ISACA (formerly Information Systems Audit and Control Association).

Learn more: Navigating blockchain risk

 

Learn about collaborative possibilities between multiple disciplines in blockchain and how thought leaders across industries are thinking about blockchain for the profession. Distributed ledgers and blockchain are powerful and challenging technologies for business and accounting. They are powerful because of their potential to create new social and economic models much like the new business models enabled by Internet technology; they are challenging because of their complexity and our lack of understanding.

Learn more: Distributed ledgers and blockchain technologies

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have recently taken the crypto-asset world by storm. Where the internet was at first difficult to monetize in its original inception, this digitized valuable has carried monetization to the opposite extreme, while making it a collectible.

Find out why this crypto-asset is making headlines and whether it’s just a passing fad.

Learn more: So what is an NFT and what can you do with one?

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