A ban on distributed ledgers?

Or a ban on distributed ledgers using proof of work?

Mish is talking about a law that states:

"Fund managers cannot exchange on the distributed ledger known as Bitcoin."

I do not think it passes muster, this is discrimination in the law, ruled unconstitutional.  Running a ledger is not the right to coin, they are different.

The block chain is simply the static queue from some start. the regulators can ban these type of ledgers under the claim there can no chained transaction with finite past.  The wording and regulatory action is critical. The law has to define a particular type of ledger. Then the law passes, the bitcoiners decide to eliminate the remotest past, accept the risk and become legal again.

The effort might be fun, and ultimately harmless, but informative.   How does the regulator regulate ledger technologies?  I mean, I can design an automated trading pit using SQL and a short windowed ledger. Government is into the algorithm legislation.

Mish needs to get the problem, the central bank is not a monopoly, never was. He is asking for the regulator of 1840 to restrict price quotes by telegraph. Not impossible, but nearly.

Regulators, instead, are best off enforcing the normal fair trade rules Then get much better at forensic accounting.  My choice is to make bitcoin official and each central bank can collect a franchise tax. The central banks can control quantity swapped, minimize proof of work chains. They agree to keep their own transactions closed, among them and they get almost all the business. Eventually they want to buy out the time zero start so they cn keep the chain short and control it via monopsony power. The coin exchange business goes on, they still handle bitcoin ledge but the regulated banks get a ton of ledger business up the chain. Converting bitcoin, in steps, into the perfectly sized structured queue for multi-currency fiat exchange.  That is, make bitcoin even more useful, make FX exchange everywhere congestion priced over public and private exchanges. The central banks by collusion have enough power to pull this off.