I'm posting in part because I felt my ears burning on #bitcoin-dev.

Does everything that is broadcast have to be incorporated into the block chain? I suggested a long time ago that the signatures not be part of the hash so that the signature data could be pruned out.

There are two issues associated with including OP_DROP data. One is the amount of data stored in the block chain for eternity and the other is the amount of data that has to propagate through the network right now. These issues are not the same and don't suffer the same constraints. I believe the current system smooshes them together to make things 'simpler'. I don't think this is a good idea.

ByteCoin