I'm not sure if I quite believe that the merit system is reducing new account creation. While it would appear that way given the first chart provided, it seems to be a case of correlation not necessarily meaning causation. I believe the price of bitcoin itself is the only contributing factor to new accounts, especially because most newbies don't know about or understand the merit system. When you compare the peak dates on the merit implementation chart, they align rather well to bitcoin price spikes. We'd need another huge bull run with the merit system in place in order to come to the conclusion that it's clearly making a difference with new accounts. I don't necessarily mean to say it doesn't have an impact on the way people rank and the quality of posts from people who are looking to increase their ranks, but I don't believe it was implemented to impede account creation nor do I think it has a significant impact on that factor.


What would the goal have been for multiple accounts prior to the implementation of the merit system? If people were encouraged to post on a single account to rank up via activity alone, what would they have obtained from spreading the activity across multiple accounts? I wasn't around then so I'm not sure how the system may have been abused though there seems to be more potential in merit sharing across multiple accounts currently. I am missing some information to draw that conclusion so your input is appreciated.