At block 135,000 the v1.3.0 difficulty adjustment hardfork activates on SIA network. Please ensure you are running the latest version of the Sia software v1.3.0.
Sia, like many other tokens, uses a PoW (Proof-of-Work) algorithm to secure the network and to prevent double spending. PoW requires a DAA (Difficulty Adjustment Algorithm) to adjust the mining difficulty on a regular basis to ensure that blocks are mined every 10 minutes on average. This is especially important for Sia since file contracts use the block height as a measure of time.
Currently, this is not a problem, but it might become a threat to the network’s security once the new ASICs as reported earlier in justcryptonews.com is released, causing an enormous spike in hashrate. For that reason, we introduced a new DAA in Sia v1.3.0 which is triggered at block 135,000. The new DAA adjusts the difficulty every block and will be able to keep the network stable during sudden spikes in hashrate.
For those who were hoping to get new money out of thin air, the news is bad (and good for SIA). This hardfork is not contentious, so there will be no chain split - new tokens.
GPU mining is still possible, but will soon become unprofitable as the new ASICs from Obelisk are already on backorders.
Read the full SIA hardfork announcement here