>>17It might open DDOS attacks though if peers can repeatedly run expensive queries
Um, you configure the database however you want. So you can use PostgreSQL to keep the data, and configure with timeouts. HTSQL is mostly about an interface using HTTP almost directly to a database, with it's own query language. A well designed one at that. Heck, if you want to secure queries from spam, have the user log in at every transaction, then log out. Only whitelisted peers can make extended queries.
restricted to delta updates
That's fine. Just be sure to know that delta updates on a datastore have infinitely increasing size.
Both binary and textual data should be supported,
Just use binary, with a header describing the type of transmission, size, and checksum. If you must encrypt, do it Encrypt and MAC. Mime is the simple way out, but there are more schemas as well you can use.
I'll focus on the functionality first,
kk, I look forward to it.