IMO, Bitgold it's not a service developed just to let people open accounts and redeem 10$. You can use that platform to buy and sell gold... so they need to verify your ID.
Without the verification, people would open new accounts with fake information just to claim that 0.25g in gold.
*Anyway, BTC is better. haha*
At least, you can specify that's a referral link, don't you think so?