The intention here is to reduce spam and promote high quality content that others will enjoy and therefore give merit to. However, we're in cryptoland, so let's talk economic incentives.

Merit is valuable for 'leveling up'. A higher rank in this forum is valuable both indirectly (respect of the community, standing among peers) and directly (bounties that reward you for being a higher ranked member, such as signature bounty). If it is valuable, there will be a market for it. This might defeat the purpose of the system, which is aimed to improve quality.

First, I think theymos should clarify whether it is against the forum rules to 'sell' merit or not. It should be. At the very least, it will discourage the more honest members, who don't want their account banned due to violation of the rules.

Second, the forum should institute a rule against threads and posts selling or asking for Merit. This would be similar to the spamming/begging rules. This should cut down on some of the more blatant trading of Merit that will invariably take place.

Third, there should (personal opinion) be a fairer distribution of initial Merit than just the current forum level. Seems unfair otherwise, since there is a huge variation already just within a forum level. Perhaps a combination of current activity, time on the forum, how long the account has been in the current level, and other relevant variables.

I think Merit can be a step in the right direction for this forum.