A Review of Research on the Impact of Blockchain on Financial Reporting

Abstract

With the rapid development of the Internet, blockchain technology is developing and maturing daily. This paper compares the positive impact of blockchain on three aspects: accounting bookkeeping, accounting information quality and digital financial information. Blockchain, with its distributed bookkeeping and timestamp technologies, can effectively improve accounting bookkeeping procedures and solve the problems of traditional bookkeeping, which is time-consuming and easy to tamper with. Its digital signature technology, timestamp, and real-time data transmission technology can enhance the timeliness, security, and reliability of enterprise financial information. Innovative contract technology can make inter-enterprise transaction procedures completed automatically and recorded in real-time to realize the digitization of financial data and achieve the goal of enterprise economic integration. This paper also finds that, due to the incomplete development of existing technologies, most of the scholars' research remains in the theoretical stage; they are mostly optimistic about the widespread application of blockchain in practice and less consider the problems that will arise during the practical application. This paper also presents some outlooks for the future of financial reporting based on existing literature and research, where enterprise financial management systems will be reshaped, and financial reporting will be more intelligent, secure, and personalized.