In this episode, Giles talks with Stanislas Colin Benoit, Director of Audit Services at Catallaxy, and someone who specializes in providing audit services to the virtual currency industry.

Financial statement audit is something which has been getting a lot of attention from the crypto community of late, but why is it seen as such a valuable thing to have audited financials in the crypto space? We were fortunate enough to sit down with Stan and here from him about his experience providing these services to groups in this industry, as well as dissect some of the challenges and common pitfalls seen with firms looking to receive an audit of some kind.

The show notes are listed below with timestamps if you wish to jump to a particular topic. Enjoy!

• 1:56 - Who is Stan, and what does he do
• 2:40 - What is a 'financial statement audit'?
• 4:30 - Who is a financial audit for? What is the purpose / benefit of getting an audit?
• 9:35 - Audit has become increasingly requested as something virtual currency businesses are looking for. In many ways, firms who have completed one are using it almost as a marketing tool. Why is this? Why is this such a valuable thing for a virtual currency business?
• 12:45 - What are the challenges of undertaking a financial statement audit for a virtual currency business?
• 15:07 - What is the process of getting a financial statement audit done?
• 17:00 - What can / should businesses a business in the virtual currency space seeking an audit be doing in preparation for something like this?
• 19:34 - What is the difference between a SOC (System and Organization Control) audit and a financial statement audit? Why would I want one over the other?
• 23:10 - What are some of the challenges for auditors in applying the current audit standards to the virtual currency space?
• 25:55 - What is the concept of 'ownership' and 'existence' and why is it so important to the audit discussion?
• 29:50 - Why are block explorers potentially unreliable when confirming ownership and existence?
• 32:26 - Are there alternatives to audit which can serve a similar / same purpose for a dealer in virtual currency?
35:15 - How do we get to more mainstream adoption of cryptocurrency?