Thanks for asking.

APT is currently listed on Cryptex and Askcoin.  Yes, it's probably possible to GPU mine, but no one has built it yet, so it's not proven.

Which version are you on?  There was a hard fork a while back, so it's possible you're on the wrong wallet.  If you are on the latest (linked from the OP), be sure to update your .conf file, otherwise you may not be able to find nodes to connect with.

There is currently no known working GPU miner available for Aptcoin, and monitoring the network hashrate supports that.

Ok, thanks for clarifying (and again, thanks for testing this).  I would argue that ramping up difficulty and having a stuck block can happen for any (bitcoin derived) cryptocurrency (although it's easiest to execute on lower hashrate networks).  We're all for tweaking though, specific to how our system works, and wanted to see how this does over time.  As you alluded to, keeping the hard forks down to a minimum is something we're striving for, but we are open to debating if one is needed in the future.

Radus, thanks for testing :-)

I'm curious why you think this algorithm is worse than before though.  For example, in the past we were stuck on blocks (i.e. a handful) for many days, and that has not happened again and our network continues (or would you disagree?).

Glad that you noticed the algorithm is aggressive, but from what you describe, it sounds like you're trying to make the algorithm re-target up, and you should see that we specifically dampened the re-target up.  Where we're really aggressive is targeting difficulty back down, which is why the network is chugging along despite this test.  We're not sure that we fully understand the scenario that you're testing, but we did test ramping up hash power and seeing what happens after a stuck block quite a bit.  Can you help us to understand better what you did and why it caused problems?  From here things appear to be the expected outcome, but it sounds like we missed something.  What would you suggest?

Just a quick update that the fork appears to have gone through without any issue.  We will of course continue to keep an eye on the network.

Please make sure you're upgraded to the latest wallets!  The block at which we hard fork is coming up -- likely in < 24 hours.

Also don't forget to vote for us on AskCoin.net! We're currently listed as the first coin to be listed Tuesday morning at 04:00 UTC. Lets make sure Businesscoin doesn't run ahead anytime soon.  

We've finally come out of our extensive testing phase with a new difficulty re-targeting algorithm called AptCurve (the whitepaper in the OP has an updated Appendix with details).  Most coins have similar PoW algorithms, but since ours is novel and unique, it has very different characteristics than anything else out there -- meaning that no existing algorithm for re-target was making sense for this coin.  Since we've just developed a new algorithm, we're not saying it's perfect, but we believe the idea behind it best suits our PoW at this time.

In order to launch this, a hard fork in Aptcoin is implemented at block 10,000 and this wallet upgrade is MANDATORY.  The forum user 'radus' first recommended this block number because it will be coming up in the next 6-7 days from now and we agreed that it's a fair amount of time to have everyone upgraded.  A special thanks to those that responded in addition to 'radus', including 'Singman33', 'Spidercoin', and 'woot'.

For now, upgrading will feel no different than the wallet that you're running.  At block 10,001, AptCurve will kick in, although it may take a few blocks to accurately find its center and be the most effective.

Please update NOW with the new wallets linked in the OP (version 0.9.0.2).

And Thank You, to all of the brave crypto-currency pioneers.  We are here in this grand experiment together.

That should work out well.  Thanks!

Quick update: We've been testing the new re-target and things are appearing good here on testnet.  The real world is of course different than test environments, but we're wrapping up our testing and are looking to release a new wallet soon.  The question we're debating is which block to start the new re-target on since it's a hard fork.  We're assuming the people watching this forum are the majority of the people running wallets, so we wanted to get a gauge of how long it would take to get everyone updated.  We're guessing about a week, but could be convinced to go a shorter time (~4 days or so) given that there are no known pool operators that might be the most likely to create a competing chain.

Anyone want to comment?

Thanks for your patience.  We're still in testing, but it should be ready in the next day or so.  Hang in there, big things to come, but since we are a totally new kind of coin, we are focusing our efforts on the backend so that things like pools and exchanges are possible.  All in due time.

Cpuminer is an independent miner and has been in the github for some time now.

We're working on final testing for the new difficulty re-target algorithm as I type on testnet.  When that problem is solved, all else will follow.  We are targeting some point next week for the release, but since we'll need everyone to update the wallet, it won't take effect for a few days after that release.

TheCoinFinder dropped off the map so stratum testing for pools has ceased.  Anyone else want to volunteer to work with us and be the first Aptcoin pool available?

The question that anyone who's been watching has is: What's up with the block generation times?

In short, it's off. But we're in the process of testing a change that should help fix this by changing how we re-target difficulty. The good news is that we hope to see more stable block generation times. The bad news is that it's not only experimental, but it's also going to require a mandatory update to all wallets.

Since there are no pools or exchanges yet, it's up to YOU to update when the new wallet is released.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us thus far, we'll continue innovating to make sure this coin reaches the moon.

The default client does not consider them confirmed until 120 confirmations.  That's different than the network/protocol limit of 100.

Coinbase Maturity (i.e. blocks that are mined) change status after 100 confirmations (same as bitcoin/litecoin).

You can mine on any port you want by specifying, but that's non-standard.  12946 is the default port.

This is correct, thanks!

An example of the alternate syntax is:

minerd -o http://localhost:19246 -O rpcuser:rpcpass

Added, along with Test Net ports, thanks!

Cpuminer is in the github currently and works only for solo mining.  It's experimental, but has been working over here and does provide hashing speedups.

https://github.com/aptcoin/cpuminer

NOTE: Stratum support is NOT working yet, but we'll post again when cpuminer is fully supported and "just works" (with notes on how to use it for people unfamiliar with it).  We have been working with TheCoinFinder to get stratum support going, so when it's ready, hashharder.com will be the first APT pool available.

Scrypt-NM is a new algorithm and is a new experiment in the crypto space.  We are evaluating the issues people are seeing and considering what needs to change going forward.  Currently, the initial assumptions we made about the difficulty re-targeting are off base, as we've seen our block generation is behind target.  Please stay tuned, as this will surely be addressed.  In the meantime, the original difficuly re-target has been incrementally working and although we have lost some hashrate the past few days, the difficulty has decreased quite a bit.

Aptcoin 0.9.0.1 binaries posted. Please reference OP for the new wallet.