As regards the growth of the forum,i do not really feel handing out merits should be left entirely in the hands of those who have racked up numerous merits,or the big guns in the forum,it makes the forum lack the transparency it ought to have.I think merits should be handed out to users by separate individuals or bodies whose duty it will be only to hand out merits and nothing more..
Leaving it to individual discretion makes it look more like a situation when one pops into facebook and likes a random post,the like actually means nothing to the initial poster,but in here merit is so so important as its required to get up the ranks. You hear statements like "make a quality post and you get a merit",who decides if the post is a quality one,an individual can go through a quality post and yet not hand in merits,probably he's not in a good mood,then how is that a criteria or a sine qua non to get merits..
I think other ways to get merits ought to be introduced to make the forum fair to all an sundry.

To study more about the cryptocurrency and know exactly where bitcoin and other crptocurrencies came from,what they do and how they work,here are six(6)books every crypro user must read.
1)"Digital Gold" by Nathaniel propper
2)cryptoassets;the innovative investors guide to bitcoin and beyond by Chris Burniske and Jack Tatar
3)"Blockchain Revolution" by Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott
4)"The age of cryptocurrency" by Paul vignar and Michael j.casey
5)"American kingpin" by Nick Bilton
6)"The internet of money" by Andreas Antonopoulos.

You can also watch movies with the following titles:"The rise and rise of Bitcoin" and "Bitcoin; The end of money as we know it" both released in 2014,when global public knowledge of cryptocurrency remained a fraction of current levels.