Greetings SPARKers! I have just completed the upload of SPARK v1.3 - this is a MANDATORY upgrade!!

I have made several changes to address the slow block production problem that is delaying txes and making the coin nearly unusable:

• Reduced the minimum PoS difficulty level allowed
• Reduced the number of blocks required before moved SPARK can start staking again
• Changed the difficulty retargeting algorithm to respond more efficiently
• Also replaced the DNS seed node so new users should find it easier to connect their wallet

The algo change is set to take effect at block 24630, if you have not updated by then your wallet will start rejecting new blocks.

The new source code and compiled Windows release are available at https://github.com/RentaMouse/Spark/releases/tag/v1.3.0

Rather than package the complete install again this is just the updated Spark-qt.exe - download it and replace the existing exe file in your Spark folder. To be on the safe side this is a good opportunity to make a backup of your SPARK wallet.dat file.

I have also updated my Windows QT compiler so hopefully this release will be more stable than the original version. I'm afraid there are still a lot of (mainly cosmetic) features in the GUI wallet which do not function, Most of them, e.g. the market data, are coded to use the getspark.com web server which the original dev took offline when he quit and I dont see them as a priority to fix. Once we get the network stable I have some ideas for making SPARK useful, more on that to come.