Topic: Merit source unapplication - Vlad2Vlad (Read 760 times)

Uhm... Without remembering his exact words, as I don't use to keep old PMs (unless they are really important to me), I recall that he used a similar explanation to me when I asked him how comes that he has so many sMerits if he is not a Merit Source. He told me back then that he received an enormous amount of sMerits when the Merit system was launched.


Yes, this is also what I know about the "bonus" sMerits received by various ranks after the Merit system was implemented. What I believe though is the following: maybe back then theymos created some merit sources which had no written application. Maybe he created them as he considered they were needed. If that was the case, it would make sense to believe that he could have chosen some merit sources for the local boards. And from here, maybe he made Vlad2Vlad the merit source for Romanian board. However, his interference with the Romanian board was (and still is) low. But if he was made a merit source in a first batch created by theymos, maybe this is why he doesn't have a written application.

But again, as I wrote in my previous post, when I talked to him he sounded like he has absolutely no idea about what a merit source is, nor about other forum facts well-known even by Newbie members. For example, I remember I told him that if it's real that he received such a huge amount of sMerits after the implementation of the system, considering for a second that he is not a merit source (which now appears to be impossible), how comes that he never run out of sMerits after more than 2 years? And I showed him a topic from Meta where merit sources complain about remaining without sMerits and ask for receiving more: {LIST}of the Merit Sources asking for more smerit. New Round..

Somehow, his reaction was like he understood from that topic and from my question that some users buy (respectively sell) merits. I had to explain him that this is not what I meant. Indeed, there were (and still are?) cases of trading merits but that was not what I meant. I wanted to prove him that if a merit source (which constantly receives sMerits) complains for running out of sMerits, how is possible for a regular user to not run out, like him, which stated that he is not a merit source?! The whole conversation was weird, as I was writing him in Romanian and he was answering in English... But he seemed that he has no idea what I'm talking about -- or he acted this way in order to look naïve.

Another example of pure lack of knowledge about very well known forum rules can be found in this topic: [1] and [2]. As you can see, he seemed to not know that multiple posts in a row are breaking a rule of the forum...


Yes, indeed... However, I am almost sure he did not grandfather 3295 sMerits, according to BPIP.


MemoryDealers is another option lol. Or Bitcoin SV = )))


Looooooooool! That accusation reminded me of wolwoo which accused Lauda for genocide.

Now being serious, the user Apocalipsa (and Apocollapse) can be arguably believed to be an alt of Vlad, or a huge fan. Vlad has this "commie" word used frequently and I observed that these members talk somehow in his style when they are defending him. Look also at all their replies from the topic mentioned earlier by me (from post #36 forward).

Now such behavior I remember I used to have in my youth, together with other children, when we were adulating various popular characters, such as music stars: we tried to dress like them, to talk like them, to use their gestures and so on.

These two users may be such huge fans, cosidering the way they write. For example, when I read their posts they look like they were written by Vlad himself. Another option, of course, is they are alt accounts.

I should address some other issues in this case; but first things first:  Vlad2Vlad just made some extraordinary claims in another thread, which are quite relevant to this merit source unapplication.


It smells like bullshit to me.  Vlad2Vlad is a habituated liar.  Moreover, I have spoken on cordial terms with several Legendaries about the merit system; and I never heard of anybody receiving more than the well-known quota of grandfathered sMerits:

For example, Lauda had a slightly older account than Vlad, twice his post count, and a history of having been on staff; I know that she did not receive extraordinary sMerits to send!

With that being said, of course, I cannot be absolutely certain that this is false.  Only staff at some level (or perhaps, only the administration) could be so certain.

Vlad2Vlad also claims a past direct acquaintance, and even friendship with Faketoshi himself:

Next post in the same thread:
Note:  I have replaced the evidentiary image URL with my archival copy; the original is at .  I have also added highlighting, added image width and height attributes.  The quote is otherwise unmodified; in the preceding quotes, I have only added highlighting, and trimmed the internal quotations of my own post.

If the claim is true, Vlad is proud to have been a close “buddy” with what well may be the single worst scammer in the world of cryptocurrency.  If the claim is false or exaggerated, Vlad is a liar falsely bragging same.  Either way, Vlad is an extremely dishonest and untrustworthy character.  For him to have merit source status is completely ridiculous.  What’s next, hiring Craig Wright on staff?

For anyone who is even minimally familiar with my post history, I need not remark on the irony of my being randomly accused of being a Communist.  

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Please be assured, Gazeta, that I will never improperly mistake attention to facts.  I am always attentive to facts—even (and especially) as to people whom I so despise and accuse.  I do not bring false accusations!


Thank you for the information.  I consider my question to be satisfied on this point; as I said, I do NOT like unfounded speculation.  I do not want to start gossip and rumours.  I will focus on what is known to be bad about Vlad2Vlad.

Hello nullius, without thinking that I'm defending him - which I'm not - I don't think the account changed hands and I'll explain why. As far as I saw in the Romanian board, where he occasionally posts, he has a bad grammar. From what I understood from his posts he is living in US for many years and he forgot his own language. Despite this sound ridiculous, sometimes it happens. Nevertheless, I've seen people (Romanians) which after spending a month in Italy, when they came back home there were saying "come si dice [...]? lol. So some try to look smart (without realizing they look like imbeciles) and some really forget their own language (which is also a bad thing).

But this guy always wrote in the same bad Romanian when he posted on the Romanian board. If he would suddenly write correctly after a password change, I could have noticed that. I could have noticed also if his grammar became even worst than usual, after a password change. So thinking just from the point of view of his grammar (in Romanian) it doesn't seems that the account changed hands.

I talked to him just once, after the discussion scandal from this topic: Merit abuse by a Legendary. And I asked him out of curiosity if he is a merit source. The guy seemed to have no idea what this means. Actually I posted this inside this topic:


Indeed, considering the sMerits he sent, he is obviously a merit source. But it seems weird, as the guy is unaware of that (or playing that he doesn't know?). Back then when I exchanged a few PMs with him he told me that he doesn't visit any other forum section excepting the IX Coin thread and the Romanian board.

Therefore I am sure he didn't even read this topic...

Anyway, the idea is that I don't think the account changed hands. In rest, everything is clear: he merited an impostor, his attitude is anti-Bitcoin and he became (miraculously) a merit source without an application.

I suppose that I should have searched before posting the below in the Wall Observer.  It has a few little tidbits of significant data not yet posted in this thread.

So—there is no merit source application thread for this Faketoshi shill, who has rained merit on the “Bitcoin SV” (allegedly korner) account?  The Vlad2Vlad source application is what I searched for, when I found this thread.

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Just out of curiosity, does anyone know of any evidence as to whether or not the account has always been under control of the same individual?  It seems to have suffered lost password problems unusually often, all starting after the introduction of the merit system.  FWIW—I do NOT like the forum culture of rampant speculation about this kind of thing; but this is sufficiently odd to warrant a closer look.


If it is not evidence of something fishy with the account, then it nonetheless is evidence that he’s an idiot.  (But we already know that, with conclusive proofs.)

101 not that much different from 109. Not sure how it compares to others.

Hmm... You're right. I forgot that its # merited + # merited by... throws off my statistics just a little bit. Well I'm too lazy to find what I was actually looking for but I'm certain if I did it wouldn't have much of an impact on the results.

I've really been going out of my way to find different profiles to merit. Vlad doesn't. Nor does he often get merited by people he hasn't already sent merits to.

It's simple really, merit circle is calculated  by adding all profiles you sent merit, and those that sent merit to you. Merit sources with big monthly allocation are supposed to have big merit circle number, as presented by @nutildah. Even non merit sources usually have much higher merit circle number than Vlad2Vlad.

Here is the list of top 1000.
https://bpip.org/Report?r=meritcircle

May I ask about those Circles? didn't seem to understand that 😅

Nutildahs stats look compelling but again

If you gave all of your merits to 1 poster who made excellent posts would that be grounds for removal if that person was giving them out to excellent posts only? What if that 1 person then gave them out to a wide range of excellent posts.

We have previously established that most of the top 200 merit earners lose like 80% if you take away the merits that come directly from each other. If you take any high merit earner you will see that their merit fans and recipients are stacked with each other.

Is the goal of the merit system to

1. See it spread over the max amount of accounts regardless of post quality
2. See it speed over the max amount of accounts via posts that meet a certain level of quality
3.  See it given to the very best posts you locate

Also if someone gave all their merit to 100 ppl who in turn pushed those on to a much wider circle eventually is that worse than someone who gives all their merit to 200 people who then pass it between them and to a far narrower and smaller group that the first guy did who had and initially smaller circle.

Or does that Bpip circle stat go down multiple levels already.

To me I would like to see merits spread as widely as possible but many have previously claimed there is no such requirement if the merit source or anyone merit feels they want to give it to a post they feel is good. I know many DT have said before the simply pull up certain members post histories and look through them specifically for good posts.

I wonder what % of vlad2vlads merits go back to the top 200 merit earners compared to other sources. Which in turn are cycled around the other top 200 earners or top 100.

There are multiple wider considerations depending on the the purpose of the merit system.

Set out specific rules and goals for merit or just leave people to give it to posts they claim are good.

I think it should he spread out to the max as long as the post is objectively valuable . I mean once a person is a legend then giving them more and more merit? The prime consideration for most merit sources who also happen to be on DT surprisingly how their merit given will influence DT eligibility among other non post value considerations.

Also now we've made a merit volume button for thread bumping you can expect smart projects to take that into consideration for their community.

While there's any advantage to merit other than denoting a good post and merit is not nailed down to only being given to an objectively good post it will clearly not be given only on that basis.

TLDR. I don't put much faith those stats from nutildah are proof of person damaging the merit system any more than any other member there, if you consider the much bigger picture.

A better merit source is a hard thing to determine when people admit they give merit for entirely different reasons which is apparently totally acceptable.  There seems no requirement to spread it out as widely as possible.
People before have noted the tight concentration of merit cycling, but it's clear if they think they are the best posts or even just posts they think are good that isn't a problem so no point focusing on that angle.
As stated I expect V2V is a lot more capable of discerning an objectively good post that many other merit sources.
His obsession with IX is kind of strange although he does have staying power I'll give him that.
Holding big bags can do that to a person. or maybe its loyalty who can say.

Regardless of issues that are potentially subjective, Vlad is extremely odd objectively (statistically) as a merit source.

His actions are far different from every other source that is allotted close to as many source merits per month as he is.

I identified 12 other merit sources that receive roughly within 30 merits +/- of what Vlad gets per month, based on publicly available data. I don't really feel bad about sharing these names as they are all identifiable using DdmrDdmr's Bitcointalk Merit Dashboard (its pretty much considered public knowledge who the sauces are now, right?).*

The Merit/Profile and Circle (total # of profiles merited) stats are taken from BPIP.

Merit Source	Merit/Profile	Circle
bitmover	4.8	656
BobLawblaw	15.5	279
cabalism13	6.0	512
CryptopreneurBrainboss	4.3	709
EFS	8.7	507
Jet Cash	5.4	741
joniboini	7.6	458
mindrust	4.8	599
nutildah	4.7	876
paxmao	4.7	811
philipma1957	4.4	637
Royse777	6.2	436
Average	6.4	602
St.Dev.	3.2	171
High +1 St.Dev.	9.6	773
Low -1 St.Dev.	3.3	430
Vlad2Vlad	34.3	109

Basically what the data says is he's not really trying to find new profiles to send merit to (compared to his peers), instead sending a lot of merits to the same profiles over and over, or else all at once.

Of the 12 peer profiles used to generate the average, only 1 sticks out significantly, and Vlad is more than twice as "bad" as them (as far as "Merit Source Duties" are concerned).


Yep I was about to mention that thread as well. At the time, I didn't realize he was a merit source and just thought, well he can do what he wants. But to see him using source merits to rank up well-known trolls and potential alt accounts, well now I'm of the opinion that he shouldn't be able to do what he wants. More specifically, he shouldn't be a merit source.


*if you are a source and want your name removed, PM me and I'll remove it

I somehow believe that he was made merit source also in order to help Romanian board with merits. And from what I know this doesn't happen.

And there was a thread this April tool (Merit abuse by a Legendary) where this same user was accused to abuse merit system and possibly even sell merits.
I guess that nothing has been solved although even a flag was proposed.


I don't know the exact situation, but I think that mods or even theymos may have to come in and make it straight; all the data is there, but it needs time to be checked.
At the end the other thread was taken over by Vlad2Vlad with a huge lot childish answers (of which at least many were deleted) and I fear that this may happen here too.

I don't want to say who is on heavy drug, I have written my opinion regarding the application of suchmoon.
That's how I have observed the post and added my opinion that this merit source should either removed or replaced by someone else but sadly people are too fast to make stupid comment when they find (they think) someone wrong.

Nice catch, Suchmoon. Starting from your Most popular altcoins on Bitcointalk. Kind of. Probably not really topic, I also found out something irregular about Vlad2Vlad. However, I couldn't find out he's a merit source. Clearly this is a serious merit abuse at massive scale. I can't even find any quality from that topic.

Please, this is a clear abuse case. Don't deny it just because of you have some arguments against the topic starter.

I mean, if he merits his own project, wouldn't the meaning behind that merit be obsolete? that is just straight up wasting merit that should be given to those who really deserves it. He is even bias to those who shills his coin. Like come on look at this, does this really deserves 21 merits?


Even some useful guides I know doesn't get that much.

Vlad2Vlad has earned 334 merit so far. So he has earned 167 smerit.
According to BPIP, Vlad2Vlad has sent 3462 smerit.
The maximum number of airdropped smerit a user could get was 400. (See the following post made by theymos.)


So, Vlad2Vlad is definitely a merit source.

From observing carefully the merit system since inception it appears you can do what you want as a merit source other than merit your own alts or accounts where there is strong compelling evidence they are your alts

Or

If you apparently say you will award them to those who share your board politics even if you award them to objectively valuable and insightful posts.

If they are your earned merits you can do with them anything you want no restrictions?

If they are airdropped merits aka pre merit system based on rank then what rules are there?

Really all legends should have been made merit source and removed for abusing it. Rather than make is super centralized from the outset.

Are you sure that Vlad is a merit source? I asked him once, out of curiosity, and he seemed that he didn't even know what a merit source is. I had to explain him. He told me that when the merit system was implemented he woke up with a considerable amount of sMerits and that was it. Although he didn't explain very clear (as he seemed somehow unfamiliar with the subject), I understood that he is still using the sMerits from his initial airdrop from 2018 Maybe he meant something else but this is what I understood.

And I asked him after seeing this topic: Merit abuse by a Legendary. But even there, nutildah stated at some point that he isn't a merit source, that's why I asked about that.

If you happen to see a troll around here - don't try to approach, might be rabid. Report to moderators immediately. Thank you.

1. There have been proven scammers as merit sources before suchmoon didnt complain about them
2. Vlad2vlad is 100x a better poster and far more knowledgeable than eg tman, lfc, etc
3. Merit is impossible to abuse on the basis of post value or quality
4. Most DT and merit sources top 20 fans and recipients are stacked with each other.
5. Suchmoon already admitted merit is meaningless so who cares where it goes

The only gripe here really is he is giving out to others suchmoon doesn't agree with.

Tough.

Start imposing the same strict guidelines on all merit sources.

Tighten up the entire thing, restart it or just let it run as is. No point imposing certain requirements on some not others.

Suchmoon has already cried to theymos before and had a source who was giving merit to undeniably good posts kicked off

I don't support the removal of any merit source unless the specific reason is given and all other merit sources that are guilty are also removed on the same basis.

I don't know how often Merit source rights are revoked from abusers, but I am in support of immediate revocation of the Merit source rights from the person in question. Hording merits and the making it rain specifically to shitposters and scammers isn't what the merit system was created to do.
We have so many good members applying to be merit source and would do much better. I wonder why it takes so long to make such decisions.