Don't know about a way to short tulips but the first documented short in history was in 1609 by Dutch merchant Isaac LeMaire. It was against Dutch East India Company when they stopped paying dividends.
I don't think so. That is why bubbles grow like that, the inability to bet against them. Same with Bitcoin's last year's raise. Maybe it has nothing to do with it but once the futures came into the picture... Edit: The very first short did happen in Holland in the same century 1609, but it was a stock, the Dutch East India Company. Very interesting story:
Worthless, fungible... That defines well the USD, or any fiat money. Your government prints boatloads of it. I miss your point, here. On which premise do you state that bitcoin is worth less than USD? Because it is not printed by the Federal Reserve? Let me remind you that 1 single bitcoin is worth $8,600 USD at present. What's worthless and what's not? Both are backed by hot air, hypocrisy, lies and empty promises. But, as a matter of fact, one is worth 8,600x more than the other. And that's a fact. Not a belief.
Actually the dollar is backed by a government that is willing and able to do all manner of things to ensure that it's value doesn't fall to 0. Bitcoin is not. In that way they are vastly different. I've got no horse in the bitcoin race other than interest in the block-chain technology, so the idiocy posted on both sides is pretty apparent. If you want to be a nihilist, nearly everything of value is based on "hot air, hypocrisy, lies and empty promises", from gold to truffles. Like all nihilism, it's a rather pointless belief to hold in the real world.
And I'm a grumpy old man (Gen X)! But I do have some spectacular millennials working for me, so I bristle a bit with the "kids these days" crap I hear from my contemporaries.
Explain it to me oh wise man of youth: How come Bitcoin price is higher the less usable it is? You know what, nevermind... At least tulips were nice to look at.