Forks, or the threat of them, seem to be an established feature of the cryptocurrency landscape. But what are they? Why are they such a big deal? And what is the difference between a hard fork and a soft fork?
A “fork,” in programming terms, is an open-source code modification. Usually the forked code is similar to the original, but with important modifications, and the two “prongs” comfortably co-exist. Sometimes a fork is used to test a process, but with cryptocurrencies, it is more often used to implement a fundamental change, or to create a new asset with similar (but not equal) characteristics as the original.
Not all forks are intentional. With a widely distributed open-source codebase, a fork can happen accidentally when not all nodes are replicating the same information. Usually these forks are identified and resolved, however, and the majority of cryptocurrency forks are due to disagreements over embedded characteristics.
One thing to bear in mind with forks is that they have a “shared history.” The record of transactions on each of the chains (old and new) is identical prior to the split.
Hard forks
There are two main types of programming fork: hard and soft.
A hard fork is a change to a protocol that renders older versions invalid. If older versions continue running, they will end up with a different protocol and with different data than the newer version. This can lead to significant confusion and possible error.
With bitcoin, a hard fork would be necessary to change defining parameters such as the block size, the difficulty of the cryptographic puzzle that needs to be solved, limits to additional information that can be added, etc. A change to any of these rules would cause blocks to be accepted by the new protocol but rejected by older versions and could lead to serious problems – possibly even a loss of funds.
For instance, if the block size limit were to be increased from 1MB to 4MB, a 2MB block would be accepted by nodes running the new version, but rejected by nodes running the older version.
Let’s say that this 2MB block is validated by an updated node and added on to the blockchain. What if the next block is validated by a node running an older version of the protocol? It will try to add its block to the blockchain, but it will detect that the latest block is not valid. So, it will ignore that block and attach its new validation to the previous one. Suddenly you have two blockchains, one with both older and newer version blocks, and another with only older version blocks. Which chain grows faster will depend on which nodes get the next blocks validated, and there could end up being additional splits. It is feasible that the two (or more) chains could grow in parallel indefinitely.
This is a hard fork, and it’s potentially messy. It’s also risky, as it’s possible that bitcoins spent in a new block could then be spent again on an old block (since merchants, wallets and users running the previous code would not detect the spending on the new code, which they deem invalid).
The only solution is for one branch to be abandoned in favor of the other, which involves some miners losing out (the transactions themselves would not be lost, they’d just be re-allocated). Or, all nodes would need to switch to the newer version at the same time, which is difficult to achieve in a decentralized, widely spread system.
Or, bitcoin splits, which has happened (hello, bitcoin cash).
Soft fork
A soft fork can still work with older versions.
If, for example, a protocol is changed in a way that tightens the rules, that implements a cosmetic change or that adds a function that does not affect the structure in any way, then new version blocks will be accepted by old version nodes. Not the other way around, though: the newer, “tighter” version would reject old version blocks.
In bitcoin, ideally old-version miners would realize that their blocks were rejected, and would upgrade. As more miners upgrade, the chain with predominantly new blocks becomes the longest, which would further orphan old version blocks, which would lead to more miners upgrading, and the system self-corrects. Since new version blocks are accepted by both old and upgraded nodes, the new version blocks eventually win.
For instance, say the community decided to reduce the block size to 0.5MB from the current limit of 1MB. New version nodes would reject 1MB blocks, and would build on the previous block (if it was mined with an updated version of the code), which would cause a temporary fork.
This is a soft fork, and it’s already happened several times. Initially, Bitcoin didn’t have a block size limit. Introducing the limit of 1MB was done through a soft fork, since the new rule was “stricter” than the old one. The pay-to-script-hash function, which enhances the code without changing the structure, was also successfully added through a soft fork. This type of amendment generally requires only the majority of miners to upgrade, which makes it more feasible and less disruptive.
Soft forks do not carry the double-spend risk that plagues hard forks, since merchants and users running old nodes will read both new and old version blocks.
For examples of changes that would require a soft fork, see the “softfork wishlist”.
ethereum course bitcoin миллионеры обменники ethereum бот bitcoin bitcoin cgminer депозит bitcoin порт bitcoin иконка bitcoin cardano cryptocurrency bitcoin транзакции 16 bitcoin vpn bitcoin 20 bitcoin ethereum com bitcoin реклама
titan bitcoin
bitcoin ваучер air bitcoin bitcoin investment weekend bitcoin bitcoin монеты algorithm bitcoin 60 bitcoin bitcoin банк bitcoin взлом Let's say you had one legitimate $20 bill and one counterfeit of that same $20. If you were to try to spend both the real bill and the fake one, someone that took the trouble of looking at both of the bills' serial numbers would see that they were the same number, and thus one of them had to be false. What a Bitcoin miner does is analogous to that—they check transactions to make sure that users have not illegitimately tried to spend the same bitcoin twice. This isn't a perfect analogy—we'll explain in more detail below.Finally, hacking is a big threat if you’re a crypto investor. Online exchanges permit you to trade your cryptos on mobile apps and websites, both of which expose you to hackers stealing all of your investment. And if someone gets their hands on your cryptocurrency, well, there's really nothing you can do about it.bitcoin перевод bitcoin получение plasma ethereum реклама bitcoin bitcoin падение bitcoin развитие bitcoin kurs ethereum калькулятор bitcoin exchanges converter bitcoin china cryptocurrency надежность bitcoin рынок bitcoin ethereum stats яндекс bitcoin Here’s an example of an account that stores ETH:bitcoin сша bitcoin scam cap bitcoin jax bitcoin bitcoin япония homestead ethereum bitcoin blender bitcoin купить nova bitcoin deep bitcoin 50 bitcoin auto bitcoin server bitcoin eWASM: each shard is expected to have its own dedicated virtual machine 'eWASM' (i.e., Ethereum-WebAssembly Machine). It is supposed to be offered in conjunction with the regular Ethereum Virtual Machine but few details have been provided so far.How the hardware game is changingBitcoin developer Matt Corallo also wrote about the importance of this property:спекуляция bitcoin bitcoin minergate поиск bitcoin
bitcoin конец secp256k1 ethereum bitcoin paw ethereum fork ethereum калькулятор bitcoin ecdsa us bitcoin bitcoin video платформе ethereum кошелька bitcoin список bitcoin bitcoin exchanges san bitcoin difficulty ethereum
txid bitcoin bitcoin abc Miners are rewarded with Litecoin to mine a transaction block. The current reward of 12.5 coins per block is in place until August 2023.1converter bitcoin bitcoin register monero cryptonote American investor Warren Buffett warned investors about bitcoin in 2014, 'Stay away from it. It's a mirage, basically.' He repeated the warning in 2018 calling bitcoin 'probably rat poison squared'. He believes that bitcoin is a non-productive asset. 'When you're buying nonproductive assets, all you're counting on is the next person is going to pay you more because they're even more excited about another next person coming along.'tether обменник bitcoin в monero вывод ethereum продам эфириум ethereum ethereum ротаторы bitcoin ваучер bitcoin converter putin bitcoin ethereum бесплатно bitcoin цена
trading bitcoin bitcoin подтверждение bitcoin api bitcoin ishlash bitcoin миллионер купить bitcoin forum cryptocurrency air bitcoin greenaddress bitcoin обучение bitcoin bitcoin github ethereum логотип bitcoin mining node bitcoin bitcoin кэш electrum bitcoin ethereum картинки bitcoin стратегия клиент ethereum майнинга bitcoin bitcoin habr зарабатывать ethereum
gemini bitcoin
bittorrent bitcoin secp256k1 bitcoin вклады bitcoin bitcoin кошелька bitcoin ethereum monero algorithm bonus bitcoin nodes bitcoin команды bitcoin water bitcoin p2pool monero polkadot stingray cryptocurrency dash bitcoin capital bitcoin xt
In recent years, a number of alternative cryptocurrencies have launched which aim to provide more stability than bitcoin. Tether, for instance, is one of these so-called 'stablecoins.' Tether is linked with the U.S. dollar in much the same way that gold was prior to the 1970s. Investors looking for less volatility than bitcoin may wish to actually look elsewhere in the digital currency space for safe havens.What Determines the Price of 1 Bitcoin?blogspot bitcoin bitcoin box кошель bitcoin
bitcoin center monero free
бесплатный bitcoin
bitcoin sign
торрент bitcoin client bitcoin курс ethereum продам bitcoin bitcoin crane bitcoin описание ethereum contracts pk tether site bitcoin coingecko ethereum bitcoin динамика service bitcoin bitcoin bcc bitcoin обозначение pos bitcoin bitcoin cli location bitcoin падение ethereum bitcoin 10 ethereum bonus payza bitcoin parity ethereum bitcoin asics bitcoin linux trading cryptocurrency
bitcoin journal новости monero bitcoin agario bitcoin c neo cryptocurrency bitcoin spinner
san bitcoin андроид bitcoin wild bitcoin bitcoin work ethereum info ethereum asic
отслеживание bitcoin bitcoin playstation продажа bitcoin
mikrotik bitcoin карты bitcoin Monero runs on all leading OS platforms, including Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and FreeBSD. The currency supports a mining process where individuals get rewarded for their activities by joining mining pools, or they can mine coins individually.bitcoin double carding bitcoin
ad bitcoin tether обмен bitcoin wmx shot bitcoin bitcoin курсы bitcoin mail
sun bitcoin bitcoin кранов
cryptocurrency wallet pizza bitcoin bitcoin usb розыгрыш bitcoin bitcoin cranes bitcoin metatrader bitcoin казахстан monero fork investment bitcoin продать monero legal bitcoin vk bitcoin bitcoin авито
bitcoin xl
фарминг bitcoin alliance bitcoin bitcoin spinner bitcoin birds создатель bitcoin сбербанк ethereum
mooning bitcoin people bitcoin пополнить bitcoin получение bitcoin bitcoin машины bitcoin 0 алгоритм monero mercado bitcoin tether перевод buy tether home bitcoin bitcoin биржи bitcoin реклама
bitcoin обменник bitcoin завести bitcoin usa bitcoin fork дешевеет bitcoin bitcoin шрифт monero bitcoin установка bitcoin kazanma etoro bitcoin bitcoin sec
magic bitcoin проверка bitcoin халява bitcoin bitcoin коллектор armory bitcoin bitcoin shop roulette bitcoin алгоритм ethereum cryptocurrency law bitcoin лопнет ethereum supernova p2p bitcoin ethereum rig abc bitcoin сколько bitcoin bitcoin today
ethereum coins mempool bitcoin
okpay bitcoin
Nobel laureate Richard Thaler emphasizes the irrationality in the bitcoin market that has led to the bubble, demonstrating the irrationality with the example of firms that have added the word blockchain to their names which have then had large increases in their stock price. The extremely high volatility in bitcoin's price also is due to irrationality according to Thaler.the same owner.Bitcoin was conceived and launched during 2008 and 2009; the heart of the global financial crisis, with widespread bank failure, large government bailouts, and international adoption of quantitative easing as a policy tool by central banks. His protocol was an attempt to store and transmit value in a way that was both verifiable and scarce, like a digital gold in contrast to the idea of bailouts and money-printing.future bitcoin dag ethereum
monero fee рубли bitcoin mindgate bitcoin Because of uncertainty about the security of the POS protocol—anddark bitcoin анимация bitcoin alpha bitcoin 99 bitcoin bitcoin ocean майнер ethereum xpub bitcoin Each action costs an amount of gas that’s based on the computational power required and how long it takes to run. A transaction might cost 500 gas, for example, which is paid in ether.вложения bitcoin reindex bitcoin 8 bitcoin
999 bitcoin bitcoin rt accepts bitcoin bitcoin mt4 bitcoin инвестиции bitcoin пополнить
mini bitcoin
monero address bitcoin рейтинг
ethereum php bitcoin onecoin
капитализация bitcoin chain bitcoin bitcoin electrum
50 bitcoin
bitcoin knots monero nvidia coinder bitcoin
приложение tether bitcoin раздача
bitcoin metatrader
bitcoin fpga coinder bitcoin playstation bitcoin sell ethereum cryptonote monero nanopool ethereum bitcoin daemon bittorrent bitcoin
converter bitcoin withdraw bitcoin etf bitcoin spin bitcoin explorer ethereum
store bitcoin cms bitcoin bitcoin maps bitcoin nodes пополнить bitcoin ставки bitcoin price bitcoin minergate ethereum bitcoin tor bitcoin сбербанк metropolis ethereum mmm bitcoin tether приложение bitcoin ether bitcoin donate
bitcoin proxy bitcoin play bitcoin paypal приложение tether view bitcoin форк bitcoin bitcoin virus bitcoin neteller asics bitcoin monero вывод bitcoin checker bitcoin 4000 pos bitcoin forum bitcoin bittrex bitcoin bitcoin explorer ethereum клиент pps bitcoin bitcoin авито халява bitcoin проект ethereum nvidia monero bitcoin fasttech bubble bitcoin coingecko bitcoin monero прогноз bitcoin обменники bitcoin io java bitcoin bitcoin fees bitcoin games bitcoin падает coinder bitcoin metropolis ethereum Open Collaborationethereum стоимость теханализ bitcoin Because the computer that is connected to the network cannot sign transactions, it cannot be used to withdraw any funds if it is compromised. Armory can be used to do offline transaction signature.sgminer monero bitcoin co trading cryptocurrency bitcoin crash ethereum прогнозы исходники bitcoin bitcoin 2048 сайт ethereum перспектива bitcoin системе bitcoin wikipedia cryptocurrency fpga bitcoin bitcoin рухнул monero usd bitcoin мастернода обмен ethereum
claim bitcoin bitcoin стоимость ebay bitcoin cryptocurrency calendar bitcoin school adbc bitcoin bitcoin reward mmgp bitcoin
ann bitcoin ethereum картинки bitcoin валюты forbot bitcoin проекта ethereum bitcoin chains bitcoin x логотип ethereum bitcoin регистрации bitcoin index land bitcoin bitcoin mixer wallets cryptocurrency coin bitcoin bitcoin деньги difficulty ethereum monero hardware bitcoin продать delphi bitcoin goldsday bitcoin
