The Applications and Challenges of Blockchain Technology in Financial Information Disclosure

Utilization of blockchain in financial disclosures leads new paradigm with some potential obstacles. In this research, we explore the implementation and the application hurdles of blockchain to increase the visibility, accountability and effectiveness of financial disclosures.This paper contributes to this agenda by taking a mixed-methods approach—through a systematic review of the literature, study of nascent organizations as case studies, and a Delphi survey of experts in the field—to empirically assess potential solutions enabled by blockchain's decentralized ledger technology and consensus mechanisms that disrupt and improve upon conventional disclosures of financial information.The results demonstrate that with blockchain it is possible to record financial operations in real time, in an unchangeable way, hence minimizing the possibilities of deceitful accounting and inaccurate data manipulation. On the other hand, a systemic analysis is provided in view of the issues of technical scalability, regulation and adoption.In sum, the paper establishes guiding principles for application of blockchain to finance reporting processes and provides a map for the technology and regulations issues discussed.