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Should Blockchain Techniques Be Taught In The Accounting Curriculum At The Undergraduate Level?

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Research Question
Should blockchain techniques be taught in the accounting curriculum at the undergraduate level?
Hypothesis
Students who learned blockchain techniques applicable to accounting will have a higher hiring rate at the Big Four and mid-tier accounting firms within five years than students who didn?t learn blockchain techniques.
The accounting industry, both public and private, are gearing up for a significant technology change, some have even called it the Fourth Industrial Revolution, with blockchain. Blockchain is a new technology that will impact many industries, including accounting. It started out as part of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin which is expanding into financial institutions as explained in the Harvard Business Review …show more content…

ledger that can automatically confirm and record transactions, virtually in real time, and is extraordinarily difficult to change after the fact.? (Tysiac, 2018).? The third ledger is public which helps verify transactions from either of the other two parties. The ability to verify information with the ?third ledger? will make auditing transactional data considerably less labor intensive as well as giving the auditor a new role as mention in Wilder?s (2017) article ??the accountant and auditor function would deal less with the mundane and more with truly complex transactions. [It?s a future] where today?s CPAs will make significant value-add contributions,? Steinmetz adds. Blockchain has the capacity to touch many areas of accounting as noted in the AICPA article (Bible, Raphael, Riviello, Taylor and Valiente 2017):
Blockchain technology has the potential to impact all recordkeeping processes, including the way transactions are initiated, processed, authorized, recorded and reported. Changes in business models and business processes may impact back-office activities such as financial reporting and tax preparation. Independent auditors likewise will need to understand this technology as it is implemented at their clients. Both the role and skill sets of CPA auditors may change as new blockchain-based techniques and procedures …show more content…

The questions used in the interviews would pertain to the future of blockchain in accounting and at what level it would change the profession. Lou Carlozo, a freelance writer for the AICPA and the Journal of Accountancy, would be an excellent resource because of all the research he has done on blockchain and how it would impact accountants in the future. Jon Raphael, chief innovation officer at Deloitte, would have insight on the blockchain topic because of the two labs Deloitte has launched to develop blockchain enabled solutions. William Bible is an audit partner at Deloitte?s New Jersey-based and author of blockchain articles. He collaborated with multiple people to write an article for CPA Canada and the AICPA. Barry C Melancon a CPA and the president of the Association of International Certified Professional

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