Why China declared bitcoin a spent force

By putting restrictions on the trading of the online crypto-currencies generically known as bitcoin, China appears to have moved ahead of the curve. In the first week of this month, the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, and other financial authorities banned organizations and individuals from raising funds in exchange for unregulated virtual currencies.

Soon afterwards, BTCChina, one of the country's biggest bitcoin exchanges, said it would suspend trading by the end of the month.

With obscure origins less than a decade old, bitcoin is nothing more than a string of computer-generated code, which allows buyers and sellers to exchange goods and services securely and anonymously. That sounds innocent enough. But in reality, virtual currencies also allow criminals and fraudsters to operate below the radar of government regulators.