Disclaimer: When not educating about Bitcoin online, I am an employee of KPMG LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG global organization. My opinions are my own and I do not speak in any capacity as a representative of KPMG or its leadership.
Dear Readers,
Blockchain is without a doubt one of the most revolutionary technologies to come out of the current century, with blockchains around the world helping to move trillions of dollars’ worth of assets and boasting an ever-growing list of use cases. And why is the Bitcoin blockchain such revolutionary tech? I believe it’s because it can allow large groups of people around the world to transfer money, information, and more without having to know or trust one another. Bitcoin is by far the largest use case for blockchain, and we’re just beginning to scratch the surface on all the businesses and technologies that can be built on top of it.
The simplest description of blockchain is that it is a ledger, or record, of every transfer that has occurred throughout the network’s history. Any participant is able to transact on top of the blockchain or verify prior transactions at any time. Ledgers, like the ones operated by your bank or broker, have been around for hundreds of years. But Bitcoin’s blockchain has taken the concept of a ledger and nearly perfected it by removing all centralized control from the system. The power of information is finally back in the hands of the people.
Given blockchain’s status as a ledger technology, it seems almost poetic to me that the Canadian member firm of KPMG, one of the largest accounting firms in the world, recently purchased an unknown quantity of Bitcoin and Ether for its treasury. After all, when most people think of accounting, they first think of two things: taxes and bookkeeping. And both services essentially boil down to creating a ledger of a person or company’s income and expenses. Is it any wonder then that a company whose bread and butter services revolve around ledgers would be interested in integrating near perfect ledger technology?
