Anybody else noticed that when you use "policy" "NovaCoin" or a clone of it that the database stores really random data? Yet the explorer displays it perfectly?
Take a look at this :
http://explorer.information-coin.com/block/5bf9c6ba1f6e893a50141040601bf0fbeddffab6dd03f125c3434c41eed9e7d3mysql> select * from block where block_id=5634;
+----------+----------------------------------+---------------+----------------------------------+-------------+-------------+--------------+--------------+---------------+-----------------+----------------------------------------+----------------+-----------------+----------------------+---------------------+-----------------------+----------------------+--------------+--------------------+
| block_id | block_hash | block_version | block_hashMerkleRoot | block_nTime | block_nBits | block_nNonce | block_height | prev_block_id | search_block_id | block_chain_work | block_value_in | block_value_out | block_total_satoshis | block_total_seconds | block_satoshi_seconds | block_total_ss | block_num_tx | block_ss_destroyed |
+----------+----------------------------------+---------------+----------------------------------+-------------+-------------+--------------+--------------+---------------+-----------------+----------------------------------------+----------------+-----------------+----------------------+---------------------+-----------------------+----------------------+--------------+--------------------+
| 5634 | =ô÷!Å·aí3ϲ
ApÀ½+----------+----------------------------------+---------------+----------------------------------+-------------+-------------+--------------+--------------+---------------+-----------------+----------------------------------------+----------------+-----------------+----------------------+---------------------+-----------------------+----------------------+--------------+--------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
I've been able to reproduce this with half a dozen different coins, yet when I change it from NovaCoin to X11 or Sha256 the data in the DB shows as normal....
Are you sure it depends on policy? Recently I changed Abe to use binary data types by default. To get the old behavior, configure binary-type=hex.