Thanks for the reply Studio, I totally understand your concerns for the potentiual for abuse of my proposed referral program. Which is why I also proposed these basic rules which I believe would more or less eliminate most of potential for exploitation of the program:
1. No newbie accounts.
Both the referrer and referee must have accounts at least a month old, and the referee must not be an existing root holder (May not have made any posts in this thread).
2. The coins must be bought from an exchange.
This should be fairly easy to verify via the txid and wallet addresses, as it is mainly just bittrex where Root is being traded currently.
3. The coins must be held either in cold storage or staked for at least one month from the initial transaction.
This can again be verified in the blockchain that the referee has not sold the coins again and then re-bought at a later stage to claim the reward.
4. People may only be referred once, and there shall be a limit of 'x' referees per person (maybe 5, 10?).
This is to minimize the possibility of any exploitation of the program.
I feel like if all of these rules are followed and monitored closely by the community then it should become apparent quite quickly if anyone is attempting to exploit it.
Prize draws aren't enough of an incentive IMO, if people think "Well ok I have a one in 100 chance of winning x amount of coins" then they aren't going to do anything about it most probably. It would be cool for current bag holders, but not really do much to incentivize new people to take part I think. Whereas is people are have the guarantee that they will receive an extra 50 coins (or whatever number, that is open to suggestion) if they stake for a month (or however long) then I fell like they might be more incloned to actually do it, and also the referrer needs an incentive, which is an additional 50 coins for themselves.
If someone can give me a realistic example of how these rules could be significantly exploited to the detriment of the coin then I will gladly hear it, but as it stands I don't see any good reason why it isn't worth at least giving it a try

looks like a great plan. first of all, thanks for your time and the appreciated gesture. i ll check your scheme properly tonight
and give you a more detailed feedback. And i am also adding 1000 ROOT from my holdings and 2500 freshly bought ROOT
to the bounty-funds.