Definition of terms

Age. It refers to the length of time the respondent is living when the research was performed. It ranges
from 24 to 54 years old and above

Area of Specialization. The specific area of expertise of the respondent whether he/she specializes on
area of audit, tax, consulting, forensic, compilation and review services, regulatory compliance and
information technology.

Assurance services. It is a three-party contracts in which assurers (such as CPA) reports on the quality of
information. It is intended to enhance the credibility of information about a subject matter (such as
financial statements) by evaluating whether the subject matter conforms in all material respects with
suitable criteria.

Auditing. It is a systematic process of objectively obtaining and evaluating evidence regarding assertions
about economic actions and events to ascertain the degree of correspondence between these
assertions and established criteria and communicating the results to interested users.

Block. It is like a page of a ledger or record book. Each time a block is 'completed', it gives way to the
next block in the blockchain. A block records some or all of the most recent transactions that have not
yet entered any prior blocks.

Blockchain. It Is a chain of blocks that is organized by the following system: Each new block is attached
to the most recent valid block.

Blockchain technology. It is a digital ledger created to capture transactions conducted among various
parties in a network. It is a peer-to-peer, Internet-based distributed ledger which includes all
transactions since its creation.

Consensus. It is an agreement of all nodes in the Blockchain. To enable distributed system operation,
multiple processes cooperate with each other. Faults in such systems can occur anywhere, that is why
they use consensus protocols.

Cryptocurrency. It is a digital or virtual currency that uses cryptography for security. A cryptocurrency is
difficult to counterfeit because of this security feature. A defining feature of a cryptocurrency, and
arguably its most endearing allure, is its organic nature; it is not issued by any central authority,
rendering it theoretically immune to government interference or manipulation. Decentralized networks
- no single entity has control over all the processing. The decentralized nature of blockchain technology
means that it doesn’t rely on a central point of control. A lack of a single authority makes the system
fairer and considerably more secure. The way in which data is recorded onto a blockchain epitomizes its
most revolutionary quality: its value of decentralization.

Distributed ledger. It is a consensus of replicated, shared, and synchronized digital data geographically
spread across multiple sites, countries, or institutions. There is no central administrator or
centralized data storage.
Hash. A compressed short 64-character code that came from a standard algorithm that runs over a file.
It identifies a block and all of its contents, just as fingerprint, any function that can be used to
map data of arbitrary size to data of fixed size.

Highest Educational Attainment. This refers to the respondents’ highest degree of education up to the
current date whether it is Bachelor’s Degree holder, Master’s Degree Holder or Doctoral Degree Holder.

Network. It is a result of cooperation of all nodes that run Blockchain software to communicate with
each other.

Nodes. A computer connected to the blockchain network using a client that performs the task of
validating and relaying transactions.

Number of Years in the Company. This refers to the number of years in the current position of the
auditors of selected auditing firms ranging from less than 1 year, 1-5, 6-10, 11-15 and more than 15
years.

Peer-to-peer network. A distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between
peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application. Instead of using central
entity to manage the chain, anyone authorized or unauthorized is allowed to join. When someone joins
this network, he gets the full copy of the blockchain.

Permissioned blockchain. It restricts participation in the blockchain network to participants who have
already been given permission by agreed-upon administrators.

Permissionless blockchain. It is open to any potential user anyone can participate as a node in the chain
by agreeing to relay and validate transactions on the network thereby offering their computer processor
as a node.

Position in the Company. This refers to the position of the respondents whether they are associate ,
senior associate, manager, partner.

Profile. This refers to the classification of the respondents as to age, sex, civil status, highest educational
attainment, area of specialization, number of years in the company and position in the company.

Proof-of-work. A mechanism that slows down the creation of new blocks, makes very hard to tamper
with the blocks is the original consensus algorithm in a blockchain network.

Respondents. Auditors from selected Auditing Firms who answered the questionnaire.

Sex. This indicates classification of respondents as to whether male or female

Submit transaction. When users submit transactions, they are sent to the nodes on the network who
subsequently send them to other nodes.
Transaction Validation. All transactions are cryptographically validated by the nodes on the blockchain
network. Invalid transactions are ignored.

Timestamp. It is the process of securely keeping track of the creation and modification time of a
document. Security here means that no one, not even the owner of the document, should be able to
change it once it has been recorded provided that the timestamper's integrity is never compromised.

Triple Entry Accounting. It is an enhancement to the traditional double-entry system in which all
accounting entries involving outside parties are cryptographically sealed by a third entry.