The 2nd option is the VERY reason why BITCOIN is created and that is to go against centralised robbery. the bitcoin community refused to be salve of the system where some elite will decide the future of others.
I think BCT users will do the same and make the admins bound to abolish this shi**y Merit system, where some elite high ranked users will give merits to low ranked users.
How decentralized was the forum? Before the merit system?
Everybody was able to rank up before the merit system. Now some people never will. Do you really believe everybody who deserves merit will get it? Seeing what kind of posts get merited now I doubt that the actually useful posts will get as much merit as them.
Would be easier if the Merit requirements are lowered a bit.