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> The idea would be that you want sellers to pay something to participate in the market

What? Why would you want to do that beyond covering expenses for scam prevention?

Trust level. If you see a seller advertise 1 teddybear for sale, and you know they burned 3 teddybears worth of coins just to offer you that first teddybear, you can be pretty certain they're not going to run off with your money.

On the other hand, if a new seller didn't spend anything, they could run off with your coins on the first transaction.

This isn't just theoretical; it's the central problem in most darknet markets.

And if they are participating just to build a sufficient level of trust before doing a runner, then you are saying there must be a ratio of "trust to stake" - maybe 1:1 at first maybe increasing - it would be interesting to know what market makers in stock exchanges run at - 1:10 or more?

absolute non sequitur. I'd just think burning the stuff was mad destructive.

Spam prevention.

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