Big Four Giant PwC Announces Blockchain Auditing Service

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March 17th 2018

Price Waterhouse Cooper LLP, a Big Four accounting firm that has supported various blockchainprojects, has announced a blockchain audit service that it claims will encourage people to use the still new technology, according to The Wall Street Journal.

PwC was expected to present the new service Friday. The service will allow companies to offer an outside review of their use of blockchain technology, thereby ensuring they are using it properly and enabling employees to monitor the company’s blockchain transactions.

Supporting Blockchain Adoption

PwC believes the service will make people more comfortable with blockchain technology.

A. Michael Smith, a partner at PwC who oversees internal audit solutions, told The Wall Street Journal the service provides the need for an independent validation that the technology is operating as intended.

Blockchain technology delivers an immutable record of transactions using decentralized digital ledgers. While the technology has to date been associated with cryptocurrencies, it can also be used for online identity verification, supply chain management and auditing financial transactions. In auditing financial transactions, it can assume part of an auditor’s role.

PwC recognizes the obstacles to the technology’s adoption. These include concerns about compliance within companies and organizations, as well as concerns about risk management and corporate controls. While blockchain is often considered tamper-proof, its adoption presents issues similar to that of deploying any information technology.

Vicki Huff, PwC’s global innovation leader, said many compliance teams do not know what to do with blockchain technology.

Also read: ‘Big 4′ accounting giant PwC accepts its first bitcoin payment

Customers Demonstrated The Need

In recognizing such concerns among its own clients who were starting to use blockchain technology, PwC was motivated to develop its new solution. PwC logs transactions on the blockchain and has developed testing criteria and controls. The service will allows user within a company to view, test and monitor transactions on the blockchain in near real time.

One customer is a major stock exchange that needs to verify its blockchain based payment process. Another customer, a digital wallet provider, is using the product to verify its transaction processing. PwC declined to identify these two customers.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

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