As this is my first blog entry written since borders have closed and many regions have gone into lockdown due to COVID-19 (Coronavirus), I wish to acknowledge the situation, send my best wishes to all and especially those directly impacted by it, and recognize continuing a series on graphics for financial professionals may seem callous when non-essential businesses may even be ordered closed in your region, as they are in mine.
A bit of a diversion from the current series on financial professionals and graphic-oriented tools for creation and collaboration (rather than presentation), but triggered from the discussion of Decentraland, I wanted to write on the topic of cryptoasset wallets. Wallets are key to self-custodied use of blockchain, and so understanding what they are, what they are not, and the risks associated with them are important to the financial professional.
On a bit of a tangent, although still in the broad category of graphics and financial professionals, I want to write about something new, taking from the old, with some tremendous potential. It is a resurgence of virtual worlds and business, sort of a second “Second Life”, called Decentraland. Decentraland takes many of the components of Second Life and brings them into the blockchain era. (Please note, however, this is NOT a recommendation that the reader should get involved, and especially is not a recommendation that anyone should invest in this project. DYOR.)
Continuing with this series on tools to help financial professionals get graphical, my last blog entry focused on a software product I have found very helpful over the last ten years. I use it to quickly capture, and look for organization in, my own thoughts - as well as using it to catalyze and organize group discussions. That technique is known as Mind Mapping. Now onto Mind Mapping “on steroids”.
Financial professionals have a lot to learn, to maintain, to coordinate, on which to collaborate, and to communicate. Spreadsheets are our universal “hammer” (as in, “when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail”). But spreadsheets fall short in many ways and for many tasks.
In the Fall 2019 issue of ThinkTWENTY20, I wrote about assurance issues related to digital media – moving beyond numbers and words in reporting and audit workpaper/audit evidence issues related to images and video.
Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA Canada), one of the largest national accounting organizations in the world, has chosen to become a founding partner of ThinkTwenty20.
