I still don't really see a point of lending people money for them to trade marginally on an exchange site... I never marginal trade, so I don't really understand completely... but how is a person sure to know that the person they lent the coins too will definitely pay back and at the time they set? Do they use some kind of escrow system?  It doesn't really sound like they do, and to me it's kind of sketchy, because it's like lending some gambling addict a ton of money to gamble with..

You can't withdraw the borrowed coins, only trade them. However, it is theoretically possible for a market to go horribly bad such that the loans can't be repaid, and if that does happen the lender takes the loss. That is explained in the Poloniex terms.

I'm happy to see someone else acknowledge this. Smart contract platforms like Counterparty and Ethereum sound very nifty, but nearly zero serious business people (including the Overstock guy, Patrick Byrnes) would even consider sending real money into a smart contract today. I wouldn't. Most of us want to see this concept perfected and standardized over the coming 5-10 years. I only bought cryptocurrencies after seeing other people using them for non-speculative purposes. In 2011, I saw bitcoiners buying drugs (to be honest) and in 2014, I saw XMR users playing Crypto-Kingdom. For me, the technical specifications (to the extent that I could even understand them) were never enough.

if 10mm was wasted on office space, then I'd consider it bad management. I thought the concept of "if we get people together in proximity, stuff will happen!" died in the 90s

no they can not guarantee to pay back the money, but if liquidity is there it should work out. i normally do not lend out money too, but since i planned to buy the coins back anyway + the rate was 2% i could not resist.
but it did not work out, next time i wont hesitate.

i do think the over all short position is still there, yesterday we just saw the bot having an issue. if he continues on margin we will see soon enough i guess

and now there are so many offers below 1%, this is really not what i wanted but yeah, market will solve it  

poloniex's policy on not publishing the data is criminal. it gives a huge atvantage not only to them, but to the rich ones, since they can afford to lend out money (and know how much there is to squeeze) + manipulate the market at the same time.

this is a real issue. i have mentioned this many times to polo, but without any success. they promised to implement it a very long time ago.

regarding eth: remember, they are located in switzerland, this sure plays a role too (developer ~140-220k p.a. office ~160-260 per m2 p.a, prices in CHF) btw. i agree, they spent it unwise, it seems like that at least

But wouldn't this give a Mt. Gox effect on the prices of all altcoins?  If people on Polo were on the inside, and maybe be using to pump some prices of altcoin, maybe Monero, wouldn't it have some kind of negative effect?  Not only that, but in a years time there will be another site that would do basically the same things?  It just seems like exchange sites are always dealt with some type of shady business.

What is it about, ELI5?

Wow, that's super cool... I guess I'll have to take the time to read the full paper, but I'm curious as to how this is at all possible.  I mean it would seem like you would have to give one to get the other, not just have both but if they found that it is technically possible, then this would be revolutionary!

I've set the document under my bookmark so I can read it with my morning coffee when I wake up in the morning.

regarding this new work by shen, so glad this hard fork schedule is starting up. Excellent foresight by the dev team to consider getting everyone accustomed with hardforks so we're ready, willing and able to continue to implement improvements in monero.