The impact of blockchain on auditing
1. Influence on the audit industry
Gao Tingfan and Chen Yongjun (2019) from the perspective of technological innovation and industrial life cycle, through the evolution of information interaction mode, the comparison of bookkeeping technology and audit development stages, and proposed that technological innovation is an important driving force for industrial evolution, and block The impact of chain technology on the auditing industry will also follow the general laws of innovation diffusion and industry evolution. The distributed ledger technology represented by blockchain technology will promote the evolution of the auditing industry towards a semi-automatic and automated stage. PwC’s blockchain-based audit case illustrates from a practical point of view that under the impact of new technologies, the focus of audits has shifted from traditional data authenticity verification to data and system security, smart contract audit services correctness of system deployment, and the use of technical specifications. focus on. As shown below: (image source with the same text)
Qingfeng Pan (2018) The application of blockchain technology can make the supervision and verification of transaction data reliability no longer rely on third-party audits. Of course, the problem of insufficient independence of third-party audits no longer exists. It can be seen that blockchain technology is likely to promote the arrival of the “self-audit” industry pattern with the characteristics of increasing internal audit functions and shrinking government audit and social audit services.
2. Subvert the current audit model
The core operating mechanism of blockchain can make transactions more efficient and cost less, and solve the problem of trust risk, and generate a system for the existing audit model. Sexual impact: First, the timestamp mechanism: effectively curb accounting fraud, and continue to follow up on the implementation of audit balancing and accountability; second, the Merkle tree mechanism: improve audit efficiency and reduce audit costs; third, consensus mechanism: solve trust Crisis, real-time audit; fourth, smart contract mechanism: improve audit efficiency and curb management fraud. The new audit model based on blockchain technology will shift the focus of auditing from record tracking and verification to more complex analysis (such as systematic evaluation, risk assessment, predictive auditing and fraud detection, etc.), the role of auditors in data accuracy verification Functionality will be reduced, but the demands on auditor judgment, oversight, and insight will increase significantly.
Cui Chun (2018) analyzed the impact of blockchain on the evolution of audit objectives and audit models, and believed that in the audit environment of big data + blockchain, the future audit model may no longer emphasize economic activities and economic matters. Independent evaluation activities, but the integration of audit activities and control and management activities in the digital economy era, smart contract audit is based on the supervision and evaluation of all activities or matters of the resources, events and participants involved in the organization.
3. Enhancing the independence of auditing
Huang Zhi and Chen Yasheng (2019) From the perspective of transaction costs, they believe that the multiple guarantees of blockchain technology enable auditors to greatly reduce the legal risks they have to bear, thereby reducing the transaction caused by the risk premium. cost. Since the possibility of human manipulation and tampering of data in the blockchain system is almost zero, the independence of auditors is guaranteed.
Cui Chun (2018)It is believed that the application of blockchain technology in the field of auditing will promote the intelligence of auditing, realize independent auditing of blockchain, form an effective isolation between independence and paid services, and provide a feasible solution for independence at the level of basic technology.
4. Changes in audit focus
Gao Tingfan, Chen Yongjun (2019) As blockchain technology becomes the basis of the ledger, the production process and objects of the audit industry will also undergo important changes. The focus of auditing has shifted from numbers to technical systems that record and generate numbers . There will be different audit strategies for different types of blockchains. For example, since the private chain is not completely decentralized, there are higher requirements for the audit of the private chain. In addition to auditing the deployment environment and the operating environment itself, whether each transaction node operates in compliance with the data update verification process will also become the focus of the audit. The audit process requires audit professionals to conduct compliance reviews of log content.
Deng Yue (2018) pointed out that the correctness of the smart contract code is the prerequisite for the correct execution of smart contracts in blockchain technology. The smart contract code is written by people, and people will inevitably make mistakes. The code is audited, so future audits may add a code audit.
5. Changes in audit evidence
Yao Mengliang (2018) believes that with the emergence of blockchain technology, traditional audit evidence has changed. Audit evidence includes accounting business documents such as accounting vouchers. Due to the emergence of blockchain technology, transactions between enterprises are carried out online, bsc smart contract audit and the evidence of mutual economic operation becomes non-paper data, and the verification of audit evidence becomes a data tracking between two blocks through a data link .
