At first, related to the dust sent to 1EXoDus: while I really don't share some of the actions or decisions that were made related to Mastercoin, I'm very certain that it's purpose is indeed one of a marker (similar to XCP's prefix) and by no means "unjust enrichment of the Mastercoin developers". Even if you combine all the dust, you'd probably end up with something like.. 0.5 BTC? This is absolutely insignificant, given that "thousands" of coins are allocated to fund further developement.
That may be true. I just don't like it as a matter of policy. It may be worthless dust now, but in the future it could be meaningful amounts.
Can you point to non-financial data usage in Counterparty or Mastercoin? They were both created to enable the creation of further tokens, some of which may end up having little value, but all are certainly intended to have some value.
I can:
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A new Mastercoin property with many meta-data fields-
XCP broadcasts (
transactions)
In my opinion this stuff shouldn't be stored on chain - and we should actively work on a solution to avoid this. It's questionable, if it makes sense to replace a short piece (let's say "btcusd-650") by an extern reference (say a magnet link). But at least related to Mastercoin I have a pretty strong opinion that most (meta-) data does not even serve a good purpose at all, given that it's content is not verifiable anyway and may in the worst case lead to scam based on name squatting.
I am of course aware of "pure (meta-)data" aspects to both Mastercoin and Counterparty. In the case of Counterparty broadcasts at least, there is a direct tie-in to financial/transactional uses. While there is the possibility of misuse, Counterparty broadcasts are intended to facilitate, and perhaps trigger directly, transactions. (I'm not sure of the exact mechanisms here.)
In the example of sports betting, a broadcaster will establish a feed that will broadcast the result of a game. Bettors may create betting transactions which are essentially held in escrow pending the result broadcast. Once the result is broadcast, the bets are resolved and the winners receive their funds.
While sports-betting may seem to be a frivolous use, the same process is applicable to serious financial uses such as options and hedges. One example that can hopefully be implemented in Counterparty soon is essentially betting on the Bitcoin Difficulty. If you are a miner, you could hedge against your lost profits if the difficulty increases more rapidly than anticipated.