From what I could make of it, I think the spark clouds are non-nodes, and is basically used to do confirmations and temporarily store records till a size quota is reached. Those opting to become nodes uses more resources to store and process the records and will not shut down like the spark clouds. In return, they get to keep the thunderbolt fee (or whatever its called) as a maintenance fee.

Of course I could be wrong.... I cant even get "hello world" to show up  

Might get some proper answers when the thread sequel comes. Interesting coin none the less... Its all about the name and the coin logo these days