Divided we fall,
distributed
we stand
The professional accountant’s
guide to distributed ledgers
and blockchain
This report examines
distributed ledgers and
blockchain. It introduces
the concept and relates
it to the needs of
professional accountants.
April 2017
About ACCA
ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certifed Accountants)
is the global body for professional accountants. It offers
business relevant, frst-choice qualifcations to people of
application, ability and ambition around the world who seek
a rewarding career in accountancy, fnance and management.
ACCA supports its 188,000 members and 480,000 students
in 178 countries, helping them to develop successful careers
in accounting and business, with the skills required by
employers. ACCA works through a network of 100 offces
and centres and more than 7,110 Approved Employers
worldwide, who provide high standards of employee learning
and development. Through its public interest remit, ACCA
promotes appropriate regulation of accounting and conducts
relevant research to ensure accountancy continues to grow in
reputation and infuence.
Founded in 1904, ACCA has consistently held unique core
values: opportunity, diversity, innovation, integrity and
accountability. It believes that accountants bring value to
economies in all stages of development and seek to develop
capacity in the profession and encourage the adoption of
global standards. ACCA’s core values are aligned to the
needs of employers in all sectors and it ensures that, through
its range of qualifcations, it prepares accountants for
business. ACCA seeks to open up the profession to people
of all backgrounds and remove artifcial barriers, innovating
its qualifcations and delivery to meet the diverse needs of
trainee professionals and their employers.
In June 2016 ACCA formed a strategic alliance with
Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ).
The alliance represents the voice of 788,000 members and
future professional accountants around the world, who share
the commitment to uphold the highest ethical, professional
and technical standards.
More information is available at: www.accaglobal
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Narayanan Vaidyanathan is head of
technology insight. He has a global remit
and leads research initiatives across a range
of areas. He represents ACCA on various
government, industry and academic forums.
Contents
Foreword .....4
Executive summary ..5
Report structure.......7
1. Introduction to concept ..8
1.1 The basics – the clue is in the name ..8
1.2 The network effect ....11
1.3 Quick reality check ....11
1.4 Things we want to know but don’t ask ........12
1.5 Cooperating to drive win-win outcomes .....17
2. Commercial applications for distributed ledgers ..........19
2.1 Solving the right problem ....19
2.2 Distributed ledgers in action 19
3. Distributed ledgers and professional accountants .........23
3.1 Starting with the present ......23
3.2 Looking ahead ...........25
3.3 So where does all this leave the accountant .........31
Conclusion .33
Appendices 34
Glossary .....36
Acknowledgments .37
Technology has a profound impact on
how we live, and a key aspect of this
impact has been an increase in the level
of connectedness within society. This
connectedness stems from being able to
share information in real-time, an ability
created by the internet.
There now appears to be the possibility
for another step-change in the impact of
technology as a result of what has been
called the ‘internet of value’. The ability
to track and transfer value (such as money
or assets) in a secure real-time way, similar
to information transfer today, could
fundamentally alter the way we live and
transact with one another.
The underlying technology to enable this
– referred to as distributed ledgers or
blockchain – is at the heart of these
developments. It could change not just
individual organisations, but entire
industries and their supply chains. And in
doing so, it offers the potential to transform
existing business models and the skills
relevant to delivering them. It is therefore
important that professional accountants
understand these developments and the
nature of the impact on their roles.
ACCA is committed to developing
professional accountants the world needs.
This refers not just to the needs of today,
but also to anticipating and planning for
the profession of the future. Accordingly,
our approach is to look ahead and engage
pro-actively with key trends that could shape
tomorrow’s world. This report on distributed
ledgers has been produced in this spirit.
We are delighted to add to the
understanding in this area, and to
complement the work of others like our
strategic alliance partner, Chartered
Accountants Australia and New Zealand,
who are also striving to improve awareness
of this important topic across our profession.
Helen Brand OBE
Chief executive
ACCA
Foreword4
This report explores the concept of
distributed ledgers, also often referred to as
blockchain. The primary target audience for
this report is the community of professional
accountants, but anyone seeking an
introduction to this topic (particularly if
they are not a technology professional)
may fnd it relevant to their needs.
A distributed or shared ledger is a digital
database of records. These records contain
information relevant to a group of
participants within a network. For example,
the value of assets they hold, details of
ownership, information about transactions
between participants or anything else that
can be represented within a digital register.
In a distributed ledger all participants are
looking at a common view of the records.
This is in contrast to a typical situation
currently where participants (for example,
in different organisations) are looking at
different databases that are independently
managed and updated.
When a change or update to any
participant’s record is confrmed, the
technology ensures that the view seen by
each participant in the network
synchronises to refect the latest update.
This is a peer-to-peer network where the
participants are themselves responsible for
the validation of records – without the use
of a central authority for this purpose. So if
the majority of participants agree that an
update has been correctly validated, that
becomes the basis for the updated entry
to be added to the ledger.
The network itself may be public or
private. A public network offers an open
permissionless invitation for anyone to
join. This provides a mechanism by which
complete strangers can trust the shared
information they see in the ledger.
On the other hand, a private or closed
permissioned network enforces a
membership process for participants.
Executive summary5
This report explores the concept
of distributed ledgers, also
often referred to as blockchain.
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