Digital assets as evidenced by cryptocurrency must be audited in financial statements

Digital assets as evidenced by cryptocurrency must be audited in financial statements.  Some questions raised include whether or not auditors should audit cryptocurrency as cash, financial instruments or something else altogether.

Write a two-page paper that explores your responsibilities as an auditor when it comes to auditing cryptocurrency. 

Some of the points that you should address include;

1. Evaluation of the actual blockchain protocol that is used.
2. Consideration as to whether transactions are manually initiated or executed automatically via a smart contract.
3. How does the auditor verify the existence of digital assets compared to traditional assets.
4. The risk of unauthorized or erroneous transactions due to software flaws or hacking.
5. The risk due to reliance on inaccurate information that has been provided to blockchain by third-party data feed services.

Please make sure that you paper includes at least three references and that your paper comports with APA formatting and citation rules.