The meteoric rise and popularity of cryptocurrency is there for all to see. After a drub 15 months or so of struggling prices and stagnation dubbed the ‘crypto winter’, the markets prices have picked themselves up from the floor and are now touching the $12,000 mark; and seem to be heading to BTC’s all-time high of $20,000. This meteoric rise has not escaped the regulators, governments, and even audit companies; particularly one of the most renowned of them all, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP has taken notice of the crypto markets so much so, that it is adding crypto auditing to its list of services. This is happening as the international audit firm expands into an asset class that is steadily putting its foothold on traditional finance.
It was revealed by the head of PricewaterhouseCooper’s Global assurance methodology, learning and education Ralph Weinberger; that teams within the organization had spent the past year designing tools that could match the private keys and public addresses assigned to crypto asset accounts. According to Weinberger, the auditor’s tools cannot access the unique alphanumeric security codes that secure each key, but they do enable PWC to check and verify that an entity is the sole owner of the crypto holdings.
PWC have obviously seen an opportunity here since the difficulty in verifying crypto assets has been one of the main reasons why a lot of investors have avoided getting involved in the space. PWC services will go a long way in closing that gap though, since a crypto asset firm getting a sign off from an audit giant such as PWC could help alleviate a lot of these security concerns. All the threats of market manipulation, fraud, and theft can be mitigated by PWC services as the market rallies to its highest peak since 2017.
Regulators across many jurisdictions have made many attempts to audit cryptos but professionally auditing them has proved difficult following scandals such as missing tokens, regulatory probes. CPAs have even given it a go, but a lot of them have lacked the risk management and process controls that a major audit firm can bring to the table.
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP can at the moment audit eight tokens which include the world’s largest token by market cap, Bitcoin (BTC), and Ethereum (ETH). Each token requires its own audit tool since they use different Blockchains, which is why it took so long to design the audit technology; according to Weinberger. PWC have already used those tools to audit a Hong Kong based Blockchain firm, BC Technology Group LTD.
This is a great bit of news for all involved in the crypto space, since wary investors can now invest without having asset verification fears. It is also a great sign since it shows that crypto is gaining a firm foothold in almost all industries now; which can only mean that the space is growing rapidly.
Image Courtesy of fl.com
