#12183. Blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies: Where is the accounting?

July 2026publication date
Proposal available till 13-05-2025
4 total number of authors per manuscript0 $

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Journal’s subject area:
Sociology and Political Science;
Accounting;
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Abstract:
Even though crypto-currencies rely on a distributed accounting ledger technology, relatively few studies were conducted by accounting academics. While some of the features of a system like Bitcoin do not necessarily rely on traditional accounting knowledge, this knowledge is key in designing effective real-world distributed systems. We argue that to date, research in this area has been predominantly of a narrow focus. This is particularly reflected by the abundance of Bitcoin-like crypto-currency code-bases with little or no place for business applications. We suggest that this may severely limit an appreciation of the relevance and applicability of decentralized systems, and how they may support value creation and improved governance. We provide supporting arguments for this statement by considering four applied classes of problems where a blockchain/distributed ledger can add value without requiring a crypto-currency to be an integral part of the functioning system. We note that each class of problem has been viewed previously as part of accounting issues within the legacy centralized ledger systems paradigm. We show how accounting knowledge is still relevant in the shift from centralized to decentralized ledger systems. We advance the debate on the development of (crypto-currency free) value-creating distributed ledger systems by showing that applying accounting knowledge in this area has potentially a much wider impact than that currently being applied in areas limited to auditing and operations management.
Keywords:
Asset provenance; Blockchain; Distributed ledger; Regulatory compliance; Smart contracts

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