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In other words, I propose an option system where there is no centralized counter party risk. The protocol makes sure settlement occurs before margin is depleted.
That's essentially the point of the counterparty protocol.
For decentralised bets you can use certainly make use of it. I touched upon it briefly in the following comment:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=395761.msg10565006#msg10565006
There is functionality in the protocol for more advanced Contracts for difference and such. It is also possible to run schellingcoin (or similar) on CounterParty as a smart contract instead.
perhaps this is somewhat relevant to your multiple competing currencies platform design:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Bc-kZXROTeMzG6AvH7rrTrUy24UwHoEcgiL7ALHMO0A/pub
