译文/Translated：
9月，丹麦最大的银行，丹斯克银行的律师透露，2007到2015年这段期间，爱沙尼亚的一个分行非法洗钱超过2000亿欧元。这个案子对于KYC（了解您的客户）和AML(反洗钱)程序构成了巨大的打击——此外的一个问题是该情况据信有内部员工参与。
这可能是一个极端例子。但是，过去十年里，世界上好几个大银行都因为AML问题被罚款。实际上，这个期间估计罚款数额就高达260亿美元。
从全球的角度来看，银行甄别和预防犯罪行为的措施可谓良莠不齐。银行的KYC解决方案通常是被动的，换言之，这些方法都是建立在巨额罚款或者广泛监管干预的基础上的。它们已经融入传统商业模型和系统，强调的是快速实施。
考虑到其中的风险，这是可以理解的。然而，问题是银行大多数客户是诚实的个人和要开展合法业务的公司，但是他们现在越来越受制于繁杂不断的检查。这样做带来的不良影响至少也是客户体验不善，然而最大的影响可能是守法的中小型企业和客户在某些国家和行业被剥夺了信用和银行服务。如果最终这还能带来洗钱和金融犯罪的显著下降，那还有理由说为达目的什么手段都是好的。然而，现实是，除了银行业成本显著增加以外，金融机构越来越难跟上日益复杂的反侦察系统。银行和监管机构开始意识到，该问题有一个解决方案：区块链。
因为在区块链上所有的信息是在一个分布式账本，即档案簿，上共享的方式记录，存放在上面的任何和全部信息都是安全、透明和不变的。它的机制如下：
顾客的背景、财务记录、收入来源、财富和资产只有在全网认同这些信息是准确的情况下才会被记录在区块链上。
因此，提交任何虚假信息都是非常困难的。同时，因为每个数据条目都是经过加密的，所以数据一经验证放在区块链上，数据就很难被篡改。
过去的12个月里，监管机构在考虑如何鼓励利用区块链技术方面有了很大的进展。
区块链不是官方或者媒体担忧的监管雷区；正相反，它可以成为监管机构的一枚利器。
实际上，区块链技术减少了数据模糊，降低了欺诈的可能性。如果所有的银行都在区块链上运行，KYC和AML数据就可以以安全、透明、无缝的形式在金融机构中共享。
不变性是区块链的一个核心方向，它也为新的信任水平铺平的道路。每一个KYC文件都会有一个可审计的活动路径，而这些活动没有任何人可以改变或者破坏——哪怕是银行员工也不行（丹斯克银行发生过的情况不会重现）。此外，分布式账本技术的分散化本质也避免了单点、中心点故障带来的风险，这样就能保护数据不受黑客或者其它网络攻击的伤害，哪怕是在私人网络中这都是成立的。
对于银行来说，区块链带来的好处有很多：更高的安全性、一致性和运营效率；机构间的相互操作性加强；结束耗时的重复收集、处理和审查数据过程；最后，加强了监管的合规性。同时，对于监管部门来说，区块链让消费者活动数据更明显、更可靠。对于处境艰难的客户来说，基于区块链的KYC系统意味着减少了审查的次数，增加了金融服务提供者的信心。
如果我们想要避免由于监管不力造成的银行业丑闻，甚至是故意的犯罪活动，那么区块链系统就提供了一个答案，如果政府和监管部门忽略这个技术的话，他们就太不明智了。
原文/Original：
Block.one President Rob Jesudason writes that blockchain offers a solution to Knowing Your Client
In September, lawyers for Denmark’s largest bank, Danske Bank, revealed that between 2007 and 2015, over 200 billion euros were illegally laundered through a branch in Estonia. The case amounts to a major blow for KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering) procedures — with the added dimension that several employees are believed to have colluded in the process.
This may be something of an extreme example. However, many of the world’s leading banks have been fined on AML issues over the last decade. In fact, it is estimated that fines have reached US$26bn over that period.
Globally, it’s clear that banks’ efforts to evolve measures to detect and prevent criminal behavior have enjoyed mixed success. Banks’ KYC solutions have generally been reactive — built in response to large fines or broad regulatory interventions. They have been layered onto legacy business models and systems, with an emphasis on quick implementation.
This is understandable, given the risks; however the issue is that most customers are honest individuals and companies trying to conduct legitimate business but who are now increasingly subject to onerous and constant checks. The result is, at best, an unsatisfactory customer experience, while at worst law-abiding SMEs and other customers are deprived of credit and banking services in certain countries or industries. If it also meant a visible reduction in money-laundering or financial crime then it would be easy to argue that the ends justify the means. However, the reality — besides significantly increased costs for the banking industry — is that financial institutions are struggling to keep pace with increasingly sophisticated detection avoidance systems. As banks and regulators have started to realise, there is a solution: blockchain.
On the blockchain — because of the way information is shared on a distributed ledger system, an archive of records, if you will — any and all information placed on it is secure, transparent and immutable. Here is how:
A customer’s background, financial records, source of income, wealth and assets can only be placed on a blockchain once there is consensus across the whole network that all the information is accurate.
It is extremely difficult for any false information to be submitted for this reason, and because each data entry is cryptographically hashed, it is very difficult to tamper with the information once it is verified and put on the blockchain.
In the last 12 months, there has been progress in terms of how regulators are thinking through how to encourage the use of blockchain technologies.
Blockchain is not the regulatory minefield of bureaucratic or journalistic imagination; rather, it can be an asset in the regulatory armory.
Indeed, blockchain technology mitigates data ambiguity and reduces the potential for fraud. If all banks are on the blockchain, KYC and AML data can be shared across financial institutions in a manner that is secure, transparent and seamless.
Immutability is a defining aspect of blockchain and one that paves the way for new levels of trust. With each unique KYC profile, there can be an auditable trail of activity that no-one is able to change or corrupt — not even bank employees (as is reported to have happened at Danske Bank). Moreover, the decentralized nature of distributed ledger technology — even in a private network — removes the risks associated with having single, central points of failure, thereby protecting data from hacks and other cyber-attacks.
For banks, the benefits are myriad: greater security, consistency and operational efficiency; increased interoperability between institutions; an end to costly, time-consuming duplication of data-gathering, data-processing and data verification; and, ultimately, enhanced regulatory compliance. For regulators, meanwhile, blockchain makes data on customer activity more visible and more reliable. And for the hard-pressed customer, blockchain-based KYC systems augur reduced on-boarding times and increased confidence in financial service providers.
If we want to avoid scandals in banking that are borne of poor implementation of regulations — or worse, deliberate criminal activity — then blockchain systems provide an answer that governments and regulators would be unwise to ignore.
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