Was there a fork or checkpoint update recently??
There was a checkpoint update to the source code earlier but no mandatory forks (soon(ish)) or wallet updates (soon).
I always worry about forks that change the mining reward. I've seen a couple of coins die in part due to poorly implemented forks. I'm sure you guys have it handled, but be sure to be extra thorough!
A draft excerpt from what we're writing up:
Bi-Weekly ForkingThere are rumblings and a growing backlash behind the scenes from certain service providers and exchanges against the constant forking of coins. Every time a coin hard forks every service provider, exchange, trader, miner and user has to update their wallet in time to prevent losing coins or having their service disrupted. The larger the networks, the longer you want to ideally give your user base the ability to update their clients and test their services. Both BTC and LTC ‘are exceedingly careful in avoiding unnecessary rule changes that completely breaks sync compatibility with old clients.’
Bi-weekly forks are not a good thing; they only highlight the fact that nothing you invest your hash rate, time or money in is certain. Community members need to be sure that the coins they are supporting will not suddenly restrict, inflate or change dramatically (read: manipulation). We cannot continue to fork to ‘flavour of the month’ specifications to keep a vocal minority happy who are only looking for a rise in price (justified, artificial or otherwise) so that they can cash out. To make things worse, coins are forking to untried ‘marketing gimmicks’ which have real or theoretical security issues and vulnerabilities. No, I am not talking about BlackCoin (BC), ZeitCoin (ZEIT) and CryptoRush issues, as that is a whole other can of worms.
We are seeing an increase in lost coins, disrupted services, failed payments and general confusion from community’s regarding the current state of ‘development’ and version of their wallet. Stability of development progression and the core protocol is very important for the perceived viability of a network designed to be a long-lasting medium of commerce. Rushing through forks every month is not how you build trust, protect the users and investors and ensure uninterrupted services.
Edit added: Anything detailed in Part IV that we intend to change and will require a hard fork we want to be viewable, discussed, tested and externally checked by as many people as interested to make sure we’re doing it in the most secure, clean and efficient way. Hard forks and their intended changes will be announced months in advance, simply because taking things slowly and carefully in our eyes is how ‘development’, no matter how simple, should be done.
