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That would leave only 5.7 per cent of Volkswagen’s ordinary shares
available to be traded on the market. However, hedge funds and other
traders had between them short sold shares equivalent to 12.9 per cent
of the total, and in consequence were obliged to buy and return them.
They understandably panicked, and the resultant frantic efforts to buy
Volkswagen shares caused the price to quadruple

http://www.lrb.co.uk/nl/v30/n23/mack01_.html

This story highlights (among other things) the difficulty of creating a market consensus. Had hedge funds been able to gather and delegate the handling of this short to a common entity, who would then negotiate in their name, the problem would not have been so wide and painful.

However, when faced with such a case, there are strong incentives not to disclose anything to competitors, for many reasons. Which is why a platform that guarantee both authenticity of participant yet remains completely anonymous could be useful. With it, people with a shameful problem can at least discuss it without fear that the mere discussion will aggravate the situation.

I wonder what infrastructure can guarantee that kind of “anonymous authentication”…