[ANN] [SPOT] | SUCCESSFUL FORK COMPLETE - On CoinPayments.net/Cryptsy/Coins-e

[AmericanComputerNerd]

After analyzing the ABE explorer, it appears that the last fork knocked out the compatibility with the Block Explorer program.  Long story short, the Block Explorer is looking for block chain files in the "/blocks/" directory of the appdata folder of the coin.  Unfortunately, these files aren't stored in the file format / location that ABE wants to see.

I want to solve this problem, and what I will call the "frozen block chain" bug, by taking the code over from igotspots and doing a fork.  I want to switch the coin over to Kimoto's Gravity Well, which is a known solution for the multi-pool problem Spots suffered.

While I am doing this, to further support the decentralization concept, and stay GPU-friendy in the face of Scrypt ASIC's on the horizon, I would like to change the alogorithm to Scrypt-N from Scrypt...

I don't claim to represent the community though, so please if anyone has concerns or a "stake" in this coin, please let me know ASAP.  My intention is to not push anyone out of their role.  However, I would like to take immediate action to solve the block chain issues.

My next steps, assuming there are no protests in the next few days, is to develop the fork code.  Once that is done, I will switch this conversation to a new thread announcing a re-write and re-launch of Spots.  This re-launch will focus on developing a community, launching a coin website, and bringing to life some of the things that igotspots was (and maybe still is?) planning.  Things like a SPT / Silver Exchange Platform, stores, and other things to further our Spots economy... 

[Desten]

AmericanComputerNerd, hmm. You talking about good ideas. iGotspots just forgot community and fucked up.

[peter Jayzelklk]

SPOT the coin team is very good, better than the other team, believe they will succeed

[Desten]

So why the price is at the floor, your suggestions?

[AmericanComputerNerd]

The price is at the floor because the previous dev basically broke the Block Chain with the difficulty swings...  The Block Chain's behavior is very erratic!  I think it speaks wonders to the community that the price has stayed pretty stable in the face of these problems.

I'm fixing it now and will relaunch the coin soon.  I'll be posting a new ANN thread when I am close.  For you investors out there, I would recommend buying now and holding!  I will relaunch the coin soon!!!


For anyone who wants to make a donation to the self-appointed new dev, please shoot them my way!

Spots Address: MFuyHnjLmXjVTTGDqY9SVFmk1Btz4CG69C

[AmericanComputerNerd]

Hi again everyone -

I've been hard at work trying to get a version 2 fork spun up for everyone.  The source is done and compiles on Linux...  Unfortunately when it loads it throws an error "assertion block.hashmerkleroot failed"...  I've carried over the character string which references spots birth day, the original time, merkle hash, and genesis block from the 1.1 source.  I've been searching Google and the forums for an answer with no luck.

If anyone has the technical know how to troubleshoot this further than I did, please take a look and help the community out.  https://github.com/americancomputernerd/spots2

I'm basically at a stand still until I get this piece resolved.  I'll keep trying, but I could use help at this point.  :-)
v2 Features:
- Kimoto's Gravity Well & Digishield for difficulty adjustments
- Scrypt - N
- Compatibility with Block Explorers & Paper Wallets
- 48 Block Reward, no halving over time
- 70 Second Block Target
- 440,000,000 SPT supply

Worst case, I could launch Spots v2 on a new Genesis Block...  However that would be comparable to rolling out a new coin, my goal is to save this one...  Not a good option.

[Nightlfe5575]

I hold the coin, the feeling is very good, is hoping to have other applications
nice wallet! get it! will follow this coin

[MrData]

On the genesis block you just have to do 2 things:

1. Replace the vout's in txNew with the ones from original Spots:
txNew.vout[0].nValue = 0;
txNew.vout[0].scriptPubKey = CScript() << 0x0 << OP_CHECKSIG;
2. Your block.nBits is set to 0x1e0fffff but should be 0x1e0ffff0

That will fix the merkle and genesis block hashes.

Edit: Also don't forget to change pchMessageStart so it either matches Spots or is at least unique from Spaincoin so you don't get network crosstalk.

[cryptocoin787]

it look great!

[AmericanComputerNerd]

MrData your solution worked great.  Thank you.

Now when executing the 'spots2d -daemon' command I am getting wallet version errors.  I've tracked them down to 'init.cpp' and 'wallet.cpp'.  I have some plans this afternoon with my family, and will look at it this evening.  I'm hopeful it's a simple line that just needs to reflect my new version #...

If anyone has some time, I'll check the forum before I resume trouble shooting.  Thanks!  We're getting close!!!

Mike

[AmericanComputerNerd]

Hi everyone -

Great news!  MrData has been a tremendous help in pushing through reverse compatibility programming with Spots v2.  I am pleased to announce that we have a working Spots2 Daemon!!!  We are testing the Daemon now to ensure stability once it is launched.  Specifically milestones associated with fork events to switch to Scrypt-N and KGW.

Features:
- 48 Spots per block
- 70 Second Block Target
- KGW will be enabled as a fork on a future block soon after release
- Scrypt-n will be enabled as an epoch timestamp soon after release
- As a request from Matory, we will relaunch with a golden logo for main net and the old silver logo for the test net.

Coming Soon:
- Spots2 Web Site (including community forums)
-- Block Explorer
-- Paper Wallets
-- Spots2 Official Mining Pool
-- Community Forums
- Spots2 QT Versions (Windows & Mac)
- Phase 2 - The long awaited Spots to precious metals store...

We're not quite ready to push this out to the masses yet, but we are close!!!  Get excited!!!     

Donate to Development Fund: MFuyHnjLmXjVTTGDqY9SVFmk1Btz4CG69C

[Desten]

AmericanComputerNerd, you are newbie and from the second message you started to rebirth this coin... You really interested or you are just kidding the community? ))
If first - then good luck and i wish you will be supported financially from old holders, i'll try to give a few satoshis when recover some after huge losses caused by fucking cryptsy. If second - then... then no words.
How you could retake this coin if old dev was igotspots and he are hiding from this thread and forgot everything he promised to do?
Or you are igotspots v2/upgraded version? )))
And how you can change spots1 wallet at cryptsy to spots2 wallet, they are ignoring most of tickets or answer to them after a weeks or even months?.
You trying to make continuation of current blockchain, i suppose?

[AmericanComputerNerd]

Desten, I have been following this coin specifically for several months...  It was one of the first coins I mined, and I have always been excited about the idea of getting something of physical value out of these digital currencies.  The bitcointalk.org label of "newbie" is misleading, I have been in the technology industry for several years and have been following bitcoin / litecoin / altcoins for nearly a year.  I never had the desire to register for an account here until I wanted to talk...  There is no kidding, I want to save this coin and follow through with the precious metals storefront that community has been waiting for.

How you could retake this coin if old dev was igotspots and he are hiding from this thread and forgot everything he promised to do?
The source code is open source, posted at http://github.com/spot-master/spots-master/, everything needed to save the coin is here...  Further, cryptocurrencies are supposed to be decentralized and community-driven.  The success / failure of the coin should have never been solely on him.  It is not my intention to take this on either...  It is my intention to build a community of enthusiasts, experts, and supporters.

Or you are igotspots v2/upgraded version? Smiley
I'm not sure who igotspots really was (is?), but I am not him.  Further, I would ask you if he was going to save the coin why wouldn't he just do it?  Lol.  I've also said this publicly and sent him a private message, my goal is to not "take over".  He is welcome to rejoin the community if this is still an interest to him.

And how you can change spots1 wallet at cryptsy to spots2 wallet, they are ignoring most of tickets or answer to them after a weeks or even months?
If the community supports this upgrade, they will have to upgrade the client, as the store of value will be on the most current fork.  There is documented evidence that the coin was abandoned and the community is supporting a revival / upgrade of the client.

You trying to make continuation of current blockchain, i suppose?
Thanks to MrData, Spots2 will be reverse compatible with Spots1 until the first fork moves the coin to KGW or Scrypt-N (whichever occurs first).  At this point, all version 1 clients will have to be retired.

[nixon99]

Good luck with this Americancomputernerd, the community for this coin has needed someone like you to come along for a little while now (since the dev went awol).

[Desten]

AmericanComputerNerd, detailed and satisfying answers. Thank you. I think, community will support you, you did good work if will finish what you planned. Especially "environment" - real things for coin, markets, shops etc.

[jmfcanada]

Re: Switching to Scrypt-N

If it’s not too late, please consider a more energy efficient algorithm than Scrypt-N. I heated my house with Scrypt during the winter and it’s my understanding that Scrypt-N is a little bit worse. With the weather warming up I am having to switch over to X11 and Groestl type coins. Along with resolving the heat issue my power usage has also dropped by ~40 percent, which is a win win for me.

Up until somebody started dumping huge hash rates on Spots and driving the difficulty through the roof it was my go to coin. Alternately I mined Diamond coin… until somebody figured out when to dump huge hash rates on it in order to get the bonus blocks… same result.

Diamond has since switched to Groestl and is now getting consistent hash rates. In case you read their thread, I should note that they did incorporate several other changes into the new fork which unfortunately made quite a mess of things at the start.

[AmericanComputerNerd]

Unfortunately the algorithm has been coded for several days now.  Even if we wanted to introduce a change, it would mean throwing away hours of work.  However, the coin has been significantly upgraded and if we want to make these changes, it is much easier in today's code.  Once I get the forum up and running @ theSPT.com this would be a perfect topic to discuss.

Now, let me transition in to the great news!  The source is done, tested, and released...  The Block Chain is online...  We have our first pool on the new client...  We have a new web site...  Please begin following the new thread, and transition away from this v1 announcement. 

New Thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=615513.0

A big thank you to the community for staying together and backing a solid idea.  We are at the floor, and I anticipate significant upward movement as we gain traction.  A huge thank you to MrData, who was instrumental in reverse compatibility with v1 and debugging the code, as well as hosting the new explorer.

Here's to a bright future!!!

Mike

[MrData]

Hi all,

I just wanted to let you know the Windows client and source code are up in the new thread at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=615513

The hardfork will happen at June 1 @ 00:00:00 GMT switching to KGW and Scrypt-N, so be sure to upgrade by then if you want to take part in Spots v2

If your Spots v1 wallet.dat is in the default location the Spots v2 installer will even copy it over for you (make sure Spots v1 isn't running first.)

[MrData]

Me again with another update

When the hardfork takes effect on June 1st the blockchain will stabilize leaving us with a stable coin that over 175 merchants already accept. I will also launch a Spots to Amazon gift card store at the same time.

Shortly afterward we (the devs) will launch a Spots/precious metal exchange. Within a month or two after that we will launch a marketplace where you can buy and sell things with Spots.

These aren't pie in the sky promises like you see so many others make. (usually by people who can't actually do any coding or have the skills to make things happen.)

So what do we need from you to make this a reality? Simply upgrade to Spots 2.0 at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=615513.0 and tell anyone you know who uses Spots to do the same.

[AmericanComputerNerd]

Hi Again Everyone -

If you haven't already switched over to the new thread, please come join us!  We're making a lot of progress and have delivered on nearly every deliverable that has been requested.  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=615513

I also wanted to share that the long-awaited Spots to Silver store has opened this evening.  Come and place your order today!

Spots to Silver Store - Now Online!!!
http://www.theSPT.com/exchange/

I am pleased to announce that I am ready to open the Spots to Silver store. 

We are selling by the gram, up to 10 grams per order.  This amount allows us to keep the envelope under 1 oz for easy shipping, pretty much anywhere in the world, as a standard letter. 

Obviously, this is just the beginning and we'll add additional weights and types of metals in the future.