Shorting will require more borrowing/lending in the BTC ecosystem. But there are other ways to mitigate downside risks, such as hedging (put options in particular). This is really our goal, to create a futures/options exchange.
As we get more volume, then we can do stuff like this and let the market dictate things like "Prediction Target" or "BTCUSD Strike Price".
I don't think that will work, because selling puts on Bitcoin is much too risky. Long puts and shorts are really the same thing (put has a delta and vega component). So while this is a most interesting space, I don't think this problem can be solved, at least not easily. But if the exchange system works better it's much easier to go out of BTC and into $,€,¥.
As we get more volume, then we can do stuff like this and let the market dictate things like "Prediction Target" or "BTCUSD Strike Price".