Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PwC have held a meeting in Microsoft headquarters in New York to discuss a possible launch of a new blockchain consortium.
The companies’ experts attended the meeting together with representatives of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. The event was hosted by venture production studio Consensys and included presentations on the possibilities of the distributed ledger technology and on building a dedicated consortium.
“We are bringing together accounting blockchain industry experts to explore and to determine the value of a joint accounting and blockchain industry consortium,” CoinDesk cites Griffin Anderson, Head of Blockchain Accounting at Consensys and the organiser of the event.
Deloitte, EY and PwC are by no means new to the topic. Last month, Deloitte developed a pilot solution for management of regulatory reporting in blockchain environment. PwC previously collaborated with Blockstream, introducing blockchain technology and services for companies around the world and now cooperates with BitSE, focusing on the Asia-Pacific market. In the UK, PwC is testing an audit application for wholesale insurance companies.
“Blockchain has transformed only people’s thinking. We don’t yet even know all the questions blockchain technology will raise, much less the answers. But waiting for the technology to take hold is too late. Now is the time to start defining the questions and influencing policy that will lead to answers,” said Channing Flynn, EY Global Technology Sector Tax Services Leader.
Some consortium initiatives have already been successfully implemented. The year 2015 saw the rise of Wall Street Bitcoin Alliance (now Blockchain Alliance) which now has six working committees and promotes digital currency and blockchain technologies among US financiers. An international consortium R3 founded the same year, unites more than 55 largest banks and financial institutions in the world, aiming at development and promotion of the distributed ledger technology for the needs of financial industry and working out standards for it.
Lyudmila Brus
