Blockchain Technology and the Future of Accounting and Auditing Services

Blockchain (BC) is one of the utmost advances in recent years. Side by side with artificial intelligence (AI), it is an emergent trend holding an underlying transformative force. Hence, BC is a topic that concerns all organizations at any corner of the globe, regardless of its typology and dimension. Nonetheless, the notion of blockchain is often misunderstood and diminished to the strict use of technology to secure virtual transactions involving digital currencies (e.g., Bitcoin or Ethereum); however, BC technology carries a greater potential to be explored transversally across global supply chains, having a wide range of applications ranging from agriculture, to financial services, or healthcare, being furthermore entangled with other emergent disruptive technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data analytics (BDA), or the Internet of Things (IoT), which are already shaping the future of business and humanity. In short, these technologies are profoundly changing the pre-established conventions at the workplace. The huge potential of blockchain has captured the attention of scholars from various fields, some aligning synergies and resources toward interdisciplinary research projects, racing to explore the multiple streams of applicability of this phenomenon. This research sheds some light on the impact of BC on the overlooked organizational functions of accounting and auditing as we delve into the learning-responsiveness of individuals and organizations to grasp their capabilities built for their present and future.