Blockchain Technology in Accounting and Auditing: A Literature Review of Applications, Evidence and Research Directions

Abstract

Blockchain allows organisations to share verifiable transaction records, but its accounting value depends on the quality of the inputs, the economic meaning of the transactions recorded, and the governance of the information system that surrounds the ledger. This article reviews 110 sources on blockchain in accounting and auditing — 105 studies (98 peer-reviewed journal articles, three peer-reviewed conference contributions and four foundational technical works) together with five standard-setting and professional documents that are treated separately from research evidence. The review combines a structured, protocol-guided search with purposive selection and backward reference tracing, and it codes every retained item by research question, research design, theoretical frame, geographic setting, and the class of inference the design can support. The synthesis is organised into ten thematic clusters: accounting information systems and inter-organisational bookkeeping; accounting information quality; audit evidence and risk assessment; continuous auditing and smart contracts; the adoption behaviour of accountants and auditors; crypto-asset recognition, measurement and custody; taxation and public-sector information; accountability, governance and sustainability reporting; professional capability, education and business models; and credit-risk and banking applications, including the growing body of evidence from Iraq and neighbouring economies. Comparing designs rather than conclusions shows that the literature agrees on mechanisms and disagrees on outcomes: conceptual and design-science work demonstrates that shared ledgers can support reconciliation, traceability and repeated verification, while interview, survey and archival studies find limited implementation, unresolved first-mile and oracle problems, and effects on reporting behaviour that are not uniformly beneficial. Preferences for crypto-asset measurement expressed in the academic literature are distinguished throughout from the scoped requirements actually enacted by standard setters. Ten tables organise the evidence categories, the prior reviews, the descriptive profile of the corpus, the thematic distribution of studies, the mapping of blockchain properties to audit assertions, the reporting sources, the recurring analytical dimensions, and an agenda of testable research questions. The review comes to the conclusion that blockchain helps accounting and assurance when its design solves a specific coordination issue and links trustworthy source data to justifiable reporting decisions. It also concludes that the most significant obstacle facing the field is now evidential rather than conceptual: the dearth of research that examines operational implementations and contrasts them with reliable alternatives.