Growing Blackmarket for Merit trading

[Rajs64]

Well!! Merits can be traded in exchange for USD




Or BTC, or other coins depending upon seller demand. I just found this conversation in one of the TG chats.

14$ seems a lucrative deal for anyone, and there is a discount as well when looking for >5 merits.

This business existed and is now gaining good momentum following the recent changes in rank requirement. The buyers usually are newbies or more specifically recently demoted jr. members who are in desperate need of merits to join bounty campaigns.  

No wonder modus operandi might involve a chain of members as merit source, whom few are a well know face here( no offense, but it's a possibility)

Not sure if this has been discussed previously, but this situation will soon widespread merits achievement through $, as opposed where it shall be bestowed in exchange for constructive values provided to forum.


Difficult to crack down this issue, but suggestions are greatly appreciated!!


I thought of some revision(for newbie merit system), which tends to centralize the process





and this may make no sense but, no harm to share with your guys.will appreciate your +ve and -ve   comments.  

[mdayonliner]

14$ seems a lucrative deal for anyone, and there is a discount as well when looking for >5 merits.

14$/merit!!!
I would say theymos has now unlimited amount of money   

He can easily creates merit and sell them to the dark-market. All he will need to do is that he is not theymos 

PS: Good finding OP. I would encourage you to find the buyers and sellers too with evidences if possible. DTs will take care of them. It's obvious that there will be merit abusing however as a community if we are active to find those losers then we can at-least bring some justice for those who are earning legitimate merit.

[LoyceV]

14$ seems a lucrative deal for anyone, and there is a discount as well when looking for >5 merits.

Considering there must be about 500.000 airdropped sMerit left amongst accounts, this high price doesn't make sense. Unless this means only a small fraction of users is offering Merit for sale, which is actually a good thing!

[Jet Cash]

Well if this continues, I expect that Theymos will stop the half life generation of sMerits, remove all of therm from existing wallets, and leave it to the merit sources, and possibly create some delegated sources.

[LogitechMouse]

I expected that this will happen since the start of the merit system (around a week or 2 after in exact) and now thay there is a new update regarding the merit system, I know that this will become more popular to those who got many sMerits.

I know theymos will do something to stop this merit selling in the future. I think admins must focus on spam problem first.

[OgNasty]

People are paying more for merit than a Copper Membership costs? That seems a bit insane to me.

[vlad230]

Well!! Merits can be traded in exchange for USD

That's very bad... I don't know why people insist on buying it, when they could easily earn it with a decent post.

PS: Good finding OP. I would encourage you to find the buyers and sellers too with evidences if possible. DTs will take care of them. It's obvious that there will be merit abusing however as a community if we are active to find those losers then we can at-least bring some justice for those who are earning legitimate merit.

I think anyone caught doing this should be immediately banned to ever posting here. They are essentially stealing money from the forum, since you can buy a Copper Membership to be able to keep signatures, as theymos said it here:

[...]
- Some of the same permissions as Member-rank members, such as reduced signature styling restrictions. (But none of the PM-related restrictions are currently lifted, such as the style limit or per-hour PM limit.)
[...]

People are paying more for merit than a Copper Membership costs? That seems a bit insane to me.

Well... Not really, it actually costs almost the same. To be a copper member you need to pay 0.00208333 BTC aka $13.93
More info here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=credit;promote

Maybe this is where the price for 1 merit came from, same as the price of a copper membership

[LeGaulois]

Oh well, I suppose we will soon see a Pump and Dump Smerit Telegram channel. Or Buyer will realize, in the long term, how ridiculous is it is to buy smerits knowing it isn't difficult to be rewarded with. If you are not so dumb and can give substance to a conversation, everyone can be rewarded with a Smerit

poor souls...

[suchmoon]

Maybe this is where the price for 1 merit came from, same as the price of a copper membership

I have a feeling that Copper membership will be perceived with a certain stigma, particularly on accounts with lots of posts and zero merits. I would be like saying "I'm so useless that the only way for me to become a member of this forum was to pay for it". So in that respect having a merit looks better. Although Copper offers other advantages, such as a larger signature. Real ballers will want both.

[Zhagedu]

People are paying more for merit than a Copper Membership costs? That seems a bit insane to me.

Nice talk but those of us who were demoted from Jr. Member to the rank of a Newbie, was a welcome development even though it was a shock on our part's to be given such treatment in the name of SHITPOSTERS, OR forum SPAMMERS; i will get up with my knowledge and contribute my quota to the growth of this forum, believing that one day i will be merited for just only one post to enable me get back my account on Bountyhive as a Jr. Member.

Paying for merit will not solve anything than to inflect more injuries to the forum reputation. I will dust up my English book and get my merit as i have no other ways to get it to myself.

[stompix]

People are paying more for merit than a Copper Membership costs? That seems a bit insane to me.

The recent avalanche of topics in all sections about the recent update proved that maybe half of the forum users are unable to search for a topic and information. How many of them do you think are aware that Copper Membership can be bought?

This is just like newbies buying obsolete overpriced miners on ebay 

i will get up with my knowledge and contribute my quota to the growth of this forum, believing that one day i will be merited for just only one post to enable me get back my account on Bountyhive as a Jr. Member.

I really have no idea what this guy is talking about 

I have a feeling that Copper membership will be perceived with a certain stigma, particularly on accounts with lots of posts and zero merits. I would be like saying "I'm so useless that the only way for me to become a member of this forum was to pay for it". So in that respect having a merit looks better. Although Copper offers other advantages, such as a larger signature. Real ballers will want both.

To be honest, usually when I see "Merit: 1" in the description of a user I'm curious to click and check how one earth did that user get merit. And in most cases....

[hilariousetc]

I'm willing to sell my 300 source merits for one Lambo.

People are paying more for merit than a Copper Membership costs? That seems a bit insane to me.

Don't forget they're still going to need more merit to rise past Junior and above. I think Copper Member should just be some basic whitelisting function and it shouldn't get you a bigger signature. It's far too cheap and most abusers will just cough up for it. If we're going to let people buy the advantages of ranks then we should go with the Silver and Gold options I've suggested and make them sufficiently expensive so most can't afford them on their 200 accounts.

Maybe this is where the price for 1 merit came from, same as the price of a copper membership

I have a feeling that Copper membership will be perceived with a certain stigma, particularly on accounts with lots of posts and zero merits. I would be like saying "I'm so useless that the only way for me to become a member of this forum was to pay for it". So in that respect having a merit looks better. Although Copper offers other advantages, such as a larger signature. Real ballers will want both.

Yeah, it's only a matter of time before it becomes a mark or shame and a 'shitposter' rank. I hope most campaigns won't pay for it, but sadly ICO shitcampaigns won't care and will take whatever they can get.

[k0er]

People are paying more for merit than a Copper Membership costs? That seems a bit insane to me.

I guess the thing is that buying a membership will nt return Junior rank to continue participating in the bounty campaign.
Newbie + Copper=  same Newbie.  I mean about bounty`s stakes for rank. So they are ready to buy more expensive, because the activity hasn`t decreased and they`ll immediately become Juniors.

[Rajs64]

some more facts:



wondered who has +50 merits to sell?? definitely, a high ranked member or may be group of them(+5) who can give 10merits each  

[hilariousetc]

wondered who has +50 merits to sell?? definitely, a high ranked member or may be group of them(+5) who can give 10merits each  

Or they're just a scammer taking their chances. Let me tell you that probably the majority of people selling accounts and merits these days have no accounts or merits to sell at all. They're just praying on the desperate and hope they get a few naive people to send them coins first and they'll then get nothing in return and there's nobody to turn to to get their money back. That's not to say merit and account sales don't happen, because they certainly do, they're just probably not as widespread as you might think and there's probably a lot more scammers looking for an easy scam then actual genuine sellers.

[mdayonliner]

Oh well, I suppose we will soon see a Pump and Dump Smerit Telegram channel. Or Buyer will realize, in the long term...

Should we HODL or sell some (?) since the merit market is having bull run I guess 

I think anyone caught doing this should be immediately banned to ever posting here.

The unofficial rule says...

Can I sell merit?

Selling merit is disallowed.

Meaning there are no clear direction however DTs will tag though.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

wondered who has +50 merits to sell?? definitely, a high ranked member or may be group of them(+5) who can give 10merits each  

Or they're just a scammer taking their chances. Let me tell you that probably the majority of people selling accounts and merits these days have no accounts or merits to sell at all.

This is actually the truth but many will doubt this and due to their ignorant they'll all fall victims to these scammers. Some how I feel they deserve it, I mean why search to buy what you can earn. Just enjoy yourself in the forum, care less about the whole merit thing. be original in your post and don't post because you're force to (bounty) and they will start coming.
Instead of wasting that $14 on merits that can be taken from you at any point in time when forum administrators link you to seller, add some spear dollars to it and get yourself altcoin when it rises, trade them for bitcoin, who knows it might be the beginning of your success story in cryptocurrency.

[Xal0lex]

Well!! Merits can be traded in exchange for USD

14$ seems a lucrative deal for anyone, and there is a discount as well when looking for >5 merits.

In the Russian section prices are lower 

$10
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5031057.msg46036459#msg46036459
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5033367.0

And even $8
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5033959.0

[inPRIVACYweBELIEVE]

Well!! Merits can be traded in exchange for USD

14$ seems a lucrative deal for anyone, and there is a discount as well when looking for >5 merits.

In the Russian section prices are lower 

$10
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5031057.msg46036459#msg46036459
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5033367.0

And even $8
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5033959.0

Quoted for reference I guess I will wait for the bear market hehe. Which exchange has the most volume? Is this listed on CoinMarketCap? Anybody please inform me. I am having FOMO!
 

[akihiro101117]

yes it is true that there merit sellers and buyers but they will be easily flag down when they have a certain pattern or same recipient.  good-luck! i wish you had a great time in this forum and goodbye also!