Blockchain Papers

Masdar Ryketeng, Samsinar, Hariany Idris, Anni Suryani · 5 authors

This study examines the emergence of double-entry bookkeeping, memoranda, journals, and ledgers as the foundations of modern accounting from an accounting historiography perspective. Using a qualitative approach, the research employs a non-systematic literature review (non-SLR) of 26 national and international journal articles, supported by primary historical sources on accounting record systems. Data were analyzed through identification, classification, literature synthesis, and thematic analysis. The findings show that double-entry bookkeeping evolved gradually from medieval Italian trade through the development of memoranda, journals, and ledgers as tools for transaction recording, economic control, and trade documentation. This evolution was driven not only by commercial and technical needs but also by social, cultural, political, legal, and economic factors. The study also identifies a historical continuity between traditional ledger systems and contemporary accounting developments, including blockchain-based distributed ledger technology. It concludes that memoranda, journals, and ledgers form part of the multidimensional evolution of accounting knowledge that has shaped accounting practices from the medieval period to the modern digital era.

D. Larry Crumbley, Donald L. Ariail, Amine Khayati

Crypto assets have upset the pillars of regulatory and centralized monetary policy, and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has been slow in developing a position on how to account for cryptocurrencies. Currently, there are many accounting, finance, and tax meanings of cryptocurrencies. The purpose of this study is to show the path FASB has taken to develop accounting standards for more than 20,000 crypto assets, outline the positions other authorities and agencies have taken, and discuss Central Bank Digital Currencies since the United States and other countries are considering replacing their fiat currency with a digital currency. Furthermore, the study presents insights from an exploratory survey of accounting faculty opinions on cryptocurrencies. The discussion of virtual currency regulatory and accounting treatments informs the development of a regulatory framework.

Tatyana Ryabova, Susan Henderson

As the accounting profession is rapidly changing, faculty members are challenged with the task of incorporating emerging advances into the accounting curriculum in order to equip students for future success. There is little debate that cryptocurrency is prominent in the business world today, thus prompting attention for accounting professionals and educators is important. In this paper, we document our experiences in introducing cryptocurrencies to undergraduate financial accounting students with the goal of capturing their knowledge and measuring their perceptions of the impact digital currency holds in the current economic environment. To operationalize our research question, students were given a cryptocurrency assignment to complete outside of class and were asked a series of questions in the class period directly after the assignment was due. The results of our case study show that students became more aware of cryptocurrencies and accounting practices associated with them after their completion of this assignment and the vast majority of students found this knowledge would benefit them in their future careers.

Loy D. Lytle, William Kops, Christopher B. Seaman

This is the second paper drawn from a two-phase study aimed at (1) determining how summer sessions are organized and administered at AUSS, NAASS, NCCSS, and WASSA member institutions to better understand the range and diversity of essential summer session functions performed and (2) examining whether these administrative/organizational differences affect performance-based outcomes important to the success of the summer term. The first phase of the study (Kops & Lytle, 2013) reported that the organization and administration of summer session functions—assessed by a 38-item survey returned by 115 member institutions—fell along a centralized/decentralized continuum characterized as highly centralized (all or most functions performed by a single summer session office), hybridized (some functions performed by a summer sessions office while others are devolved to campus units/departments), or decentralized (most functions performed by campus units/departments other than summer session). This paper reports on the total 134 member institutions that completed the 38-item survey. As well, it reports on the findings of an outcomes questionnaire sent to all survey respondents to explore the possible extent to which differences in summer session organizational structures affected selected student-based (unduplicated headcount and credit hours) and finance-based (tuition revenue and instruction-related expenses incurred in teaching courses) performance outcomes in the summer 2012 term. The 38-item survey instrument proved sensitive to how functions important for the summer term are managed and performed at the colleges and universities participating in the study. Although the organizational structure of summer sessions varied significantly among survey respondents, with private institutions somewhat more centralized than publicly funded ones, the results of the outcomes questionnaire indicated that the organizational structure had no significant effect on student-based or finance-based performance outcomes.