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Penalties imposed on major exchanges underscore  perceptions that bitcoin requires heavy regulation and oversight. Across China, blockchain technology is recognized as an increasingly important development; however, bitcoin as a “virtual good” in China is facing yet another challenge from the People’s Bank of China (PBOC). On May 10, 2017, China’s top-tier financial media outlet,  Caixin , reported that “according to a person close to PBOC, PBOC will soon issue a notice of penalties to BTCC, OKCoin and Huobi for irregularities based on its previous inspection in the past few months. The major problems are [related to] illegal margin trading services and lack of internal controls for anti-money laundering. The related penalty details have already been confirmed internally; all that is left to do is go through approval procedures.” Caixin also stated that, according to their source, further “regulation on bitcoin exchange and regulation on anti-money laundering systems for b...

In a  report  by Swiss multinational financial institution Credit Suisse, bitcoin and blockchain are deemed to be ‘relatively safe’. Bitcoin has some unique risks, the report noted. The value of the cryptocurrency has been three times more volatile than the price of oil and 11 times more than the post-Brexit exchange rate between the British pound and the U.S. dollar, according to the bank’s markets research department. Bitcoin transfers are also irreversible, so someone making a mistake entering an account number when making a payment will be out of luck. In addition, if a bitcoin user loses their private key, they can lose all their bitcoin. Blockchain’s Immune Structure Bitcoin’s blockchain architecture has demonstrated immunity to hacking risks. The blockchain is not an interconnected series of individual accounts, but a record of past transactions. When a user wants to transfer bitcoins, all computers running the bitcoin software process the sender...