The DSF team were very honoured to have been asked to participate in a leading event in the space. At the TEA Conference, DSF Chief of Staff Juan Ignacio Ibañez, hosted a morning session that heard from original innovators of the field - Ian Grigg - alongside panellists Torje Sunde (UNISOT) and Travin Keith to discuss Grigg's monumental contribution (released in 2005) of expanding the roles in accounting and finance for users in the digital age.

Afterwards, the agenda switched to the topic of: “Implementing Triple Entry Accounting as an Audit Tool - An Extension to Modern Accounting Systems” presented by Torje Sunde (Abendum). Here, he concentrated on the practical challenges and solutions proposed for switching from double entry to triple entry accounting. 

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Juan was able to share the leading findings from one of  the many papers produced by the DSF and University College London Centre for Blockchain Technologies research members named “REA, Triple-Entry Accounting and Blockchain: Converging Paths to Shared Ledger Systems” and co-authored by Chris N. Bayer (Development International), Dr. Jiahua Xu (DSF, UCL), and Dr. Paolo Tasca (DSF, UCL).  

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This article uncovers a historical link between REA, TEA and blockchain. A direct aftereffect of this research was that REA founder, William E. McCarthy, presented “The REA Accounting Model: A Generalized Framework for Accounting Systems in a Shared Data Environment” at the conference. The audience were able to conceptualise the similarities depicted across the various concepts presented, such as the Resources-Events-Agents accounting school, triple-entry accounting, and blockchain architecture and DLTs.

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Throughout the conference, other notable speakers and scholars included: Kostas Szgantos, André Bonello, Rhian Lewis, Eva Porras, Liuzan Pan, Ted Rivera, Arthur Doohan, and Todd Boyle. Profoundly, the first TEA conference wrapped up as an undeniable success and called for subsequent events to follow in 2024!