SUMMARY Blockchain is a disruptive technology that offers advantages to the audit profession such as transparency into all transactions, an immutable ledger, and the potential for real-time auditing. However, to realize these benefits, the profession must be prepared to gain comfort over blockchains as a component of organizations' information technology infrastructure. This paper considers risks to private and permissioned blockchains through the lens of information technology general controls (ITGCs) as part of an audit of internal control over financial reporting. I discuss new ITGC areas of focus for auditors to consider, along with areas of risk that blockchain could eliminate. To help readers better understand this emerging topic, I provide illustrations, a summary table of key points, and a glossary of blockchain-related terms used throughout the paper. This paper should be viewed as a primer of ITGC considerations on blockchain audits, as more nuanced concerns will emerge as the technology evolves.

PurposeThis study empirically examines perceptions of environmental report believability based on a firm's relative performance and level of assurance obtained on environmental activities under the recently clarified and recodified attestation standards in the United States.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses a 2 × 3 between-subjects experiment to identify differences in 153 non-expert environmental report users' perceptions of report believability based on positive or negative firm performance and (level of) assurance provided by an accounting firm.FindingsResults show a main effect in that negative performance reports are perceived to be more believable than positive performance reports, as driven by negative performance reports being significantly more believable when no assurance is present. The firm performance effect is eliminated once limited or reasonable assurance is provided. Further, positive performance reports with limited, but not reasonable, assurance are perceived to be more believable than reports without assurance. No differences are identified within the negative performance condition.Practical implicationsLimited assurance might be used as an impression management tool to enhance the believability of positive performance environmental reports. Users, practitioners, and standard-setters should also be aware that users might believe environmental reports are assured, even when no such assurance has been provided.Originality/valueThis paper examines the impact of assured environmental reporting on users that review firms' environmental reports outside of a shareholder/investor role. The study also demonstrates conditions in which firm performance and assurance impact perceptions of report believability.

SUMMARY A perennial challenge in the accounting profession is how to aggregate and share instances of practitioner misconduct among numerous relevant parties. At present, both the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) offer solutions for centralized collection of misconduct, but both likely experience issues with incomplete reporting from key constituents. I propose a novel use of blockchain technology to address this issue, such that all key parties in the accounting profession leverage an accountancy blockchain to aggregate and share instances of practitioner misconduct across the country on a nearly real-time basis. Such a network creates an immutable record of misconduct and allows key constituents in the accounting profession to work together and share information as peers without the risk of one party taking control of the ledger. I close by discussing blockchain-specific roadblocks to realizing this proposed model.

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Blockchain brought about the potential for improved data reliability, but only when that data is the result of transactions that happen completely within a blockchain. The reliability ofblockchain data is threatened when information is introduced from the outside world, such as when oracles are used to observe occurrences and provide this information to smart contracts.This specific threat to the reliability of blockchain data is known as the oracle problem. This study offers a working definition of blockchain oracles and argues that they should be viewed asservice organizations under the auditing standards from the AICPA and PCAOB. The study then discusses risks associated with the oracle's function of collecting, storing, transforming, andtransmitting information, and proposes control objectives for auditors to consider when evaluating the information provided by oracles. Finally, the study closes by discussing open questions the audit profession still needs to address with the oracle problem.