Efficiency
To turn your question around, what's the point of a 12GB utxo set when 12KB gets the job down?
Discussion
done*
Efficiency, requires a bunch of network calls and more proofs to verify a block
> requires a bunch of network calls
Do you have more details on this? It looks like you are saying utreexo nodes make *more* network queries than normal nodes. What additional calls to the network do they make?
> more proofs to verify a block
Utreexo nodes receive slightly more data alongside blocks (i.e. they receive additional merkle inclusion proofs), but (1) not much more (2) the extra data is ephemeral: after validating the proof, they may discard it, as, upon storing the block, they can reconstruct the proofs upon request from other nodes that may ask them for it in the future. To me, that seems worth exploring! Maybe it's *more* efficient
actually, now that I think about it, it may be even *better* than that. Since utreexo nodes can reconstruct the proofs from blocks themselves, they probably *don't* need the proofs to be submitted alongside the blocks. Just give them the blocks themselves and they can create the proofs on their own
ah, wait...I don't think it *can* produce the proofs without access to the full utxo set...hmm...