The advent of blockchain’s ledger technology brings both opportunities and challenges for accountants.

A set of working groups has been tasked this summer to sort through those technical challenges—as many as 200 issues have been identified so far. The groups are expected to make recommendations to the American Institute of CPAs later this year.

Accountants' work is expected to change dramatically in the future because of the distributed ledger system. The initiative aims to help accountants prepare to use the technology and find market opportunities for them.

Erik Asgeirsson, president and CEO of CPA.com—a technology subsidiary of AICPA—and Ron Quaranta, chair of the Wall Street Blockchain Alliance, joined Bloomberg Tax’s Amanda Iacone on May 30 to talk about the working groups, the technical questions they are set to explore, and what accountants can expect.