Reddit is also good to sprinkle on to get people to the hangouts

Who said anything about "new rules".   This thread is only about understanding reality independent of any rules.

I like that PC charges what he is worth, even if it highlights our self created system problems as much as anything.  It's not his fault that the setup makes it really difficult for stakeholders to govern / hire; I would take up the complaint with Dan not PC.

Despite repeated urgings not to, Dan decided to conflate the idea of DPOS/block signers with blockchain hiring.  This made voting confusing and added an extra step for potential workers like PC.  He then unilaterally changed the consensus of the chain to dilute at a rate he randomly picked (50 BTS / block).  And also made it expensive for potential delegates to even register so people like PC have to put up significant money to even see if they get elected.

This is not PCs fault; I doubt if he would have made the same decisions.

Sorry for the tangent but it's a bit frustrating to me because I think blockchain hiring was a great idea. It was a great idea that bytemaster had nothing to do with, but somehow he managed to take this great idea and use it / implement it in such a crazy and poorly thought out way (from both a PR and technical point of view) that it made this project less valuable instead of more valuable.  I'm still left scratching my head about what blockchain hiring ever had or should have had to do with DPOS (nothing).
/rant

What if BitShares had an average of 1 second confirmation times?   Is that instant enough

But the problem was described in the Preston Byrne article.  BitShares collateralizes BitAssets, and if BitShares (which I have heard is volatile) craters in value, then it will create margin calls in BitAssets.  Has this happened yet?  One must own BitShares to get involved in BitAssets.  So, in a certain sense, BitAssets can offload its volatility onto BitShares.  If Alice were to hold Bitcoin, but seek the price stability of the USD through BitAssets, she must enter the volatile BitShares market to gain access to BitUSD.  If BitShares were to crater against the dollar, would Bob, the counterparty to the BitUSD, get a margin call, thereby canceling the contract, thereby leaving Alice exposed to the volatility of BitShares?  There is an old expression that says something like, “If you owe a bank thousands, you have a problem; owe a bank millions, the bank has a problem.”

I don't know how stable these markets are in general.  Perhaps you know.  Are people trading and redeeming BitAssets?  Are people getting margin calls?  Where can I observe BitAssets market data?  Thanks.