How Merit Actually Works (And How to Earn It Honestly)

Most Bitcointalk newcomers fundamentally misunderstand merit. They treat it like Reddit karma — a counter that grows when people like your post. It isn't. Merit is a quality filter, intentionally hard to game, designed to break the account-farming model that nearly destroyed the forum in 2017.

The pre-merit problem

By 2017, signature campaigns paid the same regardless of post quality. Farms would create hundreds of accounts, post low-effort filler to push them up the ranks, then sell those accounts to advertisers. The forum's signal-to-noise ratio collapsed.

In January 2018, theymos shipped Merit, and the meta changed overnight.

How the system works

Every active user earns sMerit (sendable merit) periodically based on their activity. They can give sMerit to other users' posts. When sMerit is given, the receiving user gets it as regular Merit, which counts toward their rank.

Key properties:

• You can't farm merit on alts — sMerit only flows from active accounts
• Bot networks don't help (sMerit requires real, active users)
• Quality compounds — a single excellent post can earn 10+ merit; a thousand low-effort posts earn zero

Who actually gives merit

There's no central authority. Anyone with sMerit can give it. But the merit that matters tends to come from:

• Long-tenured users in the same board as your post
• Active forum-watchers who curate quality (some users send hundreds of sMerit a year)
• Other recipients of your past posts who recognize a pattern

If a thread gets ignored by these people, it's not getting merit, full stop.

The honest path

Common misconceptions

"I need 10 merit for Jr. Member, so I'll grind to 10." Jr. Member only needs 1 merit. The 10 is for Member. And there's no grinding — quality posts earn merit organically; low-effort posts don't, no matter how many you make.

"Senior users are biased against newcomers." They're biased against low-effort posts. A clear, useful post from a Newbie often gets merit faster than a mediocre post from a Hero, because senior users actively look for new contributors worth promoting.

"Merit is unfair because it's subjective." It's subjective on purpose. An objective system (post count, view count, reply count) would be gameable. Merit's subjectivity is what keeps the noise out.

The point of merit isn't to reward popular posts. It's to reward useful ones.

A reasonable trajectory

If you're posting genuinely useful content 2-3 times a week, expect:

• Month 1: Maybe 1-2 merit. Maybe zero. Don't panic.
• Month 3: Enough activity for Jr. Member, possibly enough merit too.
• Month 12: Member rank realistic if you've been consistent.
• Year 3+: Sr. Member range if your contributions are genuinely valued.

Most Legendaries took 3-7 years to reach that rank. The forum measures patience.

What to do today

Pick one board you actually know about. Write one substantive reply this week. Repeat. The system is set up so that doing the right thing slowly is the cheat code.