Yes @hiveonboard!

This is really important as part of creating a solid and thriving community.

However, some very important limitations need to be built into such a referral system. TOP of the list is countermeasures against the inevitable referral spam which will lead to potentially millions of "dead" accounts.

I would suggest downplaying the reward end of a referral system completely, so that it is effectively only attractive to people who are making a long term commitment to Hive. What do I mean?

When you refer someone, you don't get squat till that person has (a) been a member for at least a month, AND (b) has created an introduceyourself post AND (c) has actually completed some minimal amount of community interaction, like commented five times and voted on 10+ pieces of content.

"Dead accounts" is a HUGE issue in referral systems and network marketing, so any kind of "short term gain" thinking should be taken OFF the table as much as possible so the only real beneficiaries are those who are serious about building long term community and bringing onboard potentially serious new members.

I think it would also be essential to "tie" new referrals to whomever referred them (not the dApps, the individuals) in order to facilitate encouragement of newbies.

Let's say someone creates an account because they saw a post I created on Facebook. If I am "tied" to that person, it would be easy for me to follow them, AND perhaps to give them a 25HP delegation for a month to encourage them to be active.

I don't come at this from the technical end, I come at it from loads of involvement in network/relationship marketing for 30-odd years.