that means no traditional marketing methods would even work (like google ads)
nope, I think this referral program is a waste of time :<
You're worried that a referrer will have to run a full node, create a transaction on the user's behalf, get the user to sign it and return the signed tx, then broadcast the tx.
We realized this would be a problem soon after the initial design of the referral system, and we have a solution. That's what the registrar is for. Essentially we split the referral role into two parts: the
referrer can be a traditional internet marketer, all they have to do is get the user to click a link to some hosted wallet with ?r=youraccount. The operator of the hosted wallet is a
registrar who takes care of all the hard blockchain stuff. The referrer and registrar split the commission (and the split doesn't have to be 50-50, any percentage is possible at the blockchain level.)
Any good marketer who can collect users can be their own registrar and get 100% of the commission, but marketers may not want to deal with the technology headaches of being a registrar.
By making it easy for them to split their commissions, any marketer (referrer) can partner with any technologist (registrar) and maximize their value because both are focused on their specialty instead of trying to simultaneously master both marketing and technology.
The official hosted wallet website will function as a registrar based on ?r= parameter on incoming links, but competing registrars will almost certainly spring up. The free market should allow opportunity for a variety of cooperative and competitive relationships to form.
I should also note that payouts are based on income and vest for some time, which greatly mitigates a variety of potential referral abuses.