[xracy]

This feels like it could work in a way that would make Youtube money on scammers for a short period of time.

Could grandfather in existing accounts, and have existing accounts give references for new accounts to continue getting "free" accounts. The cost being a loss of the ability to "mint" new accounts if any of your existing referenced accounts start spamming.

So you want to comment with your new account, you either need a "mint" from an existing account, or you need to fork over... let's say $50 to activate comments. (Amount could be whatever).