Bitcoin Forum

Hi,

Please could someone explain the concept of hard fork, soft fork and segwit.

What is the background? why is it happening? and what are the potential implications?

Thanks

You are late to the party, anyways if you use the search box on the main page you'll get dozens of pages regarding all the issues in question.
I'll explain it in the shortest terms possible.

Core developers ( the same team working on bitcoin for almost 7 years) worked for years to improve the bitcoin network so they coded something called SegWit which is a fix for many things and it'll further improve the user experience and safety.

And there is this little fellow called Wu, he wants to have everything for himself, so he ought to hard fork the main version of bitcoin software and inject his sperms into it :D that is all you need to know really.

It's about compatibility. A fork occurs when nodes disagree on what blocks are valid.

A "hard" fork will occur when nodes start using software that now considers blocks valid that are considered invalid by current node software. If most nodes switch to the new software then old nodes will left behind.

A "soft" fork will occur when nodes start using software that changes functionality without the old software considering the new functionality to be invalid. Old nodes continue to function, but they are oblivious to the new functionality.

The segwit soft fork is achieved by hiding its functionality in an "anyone-can-spend" type of transaction.

i guess i need to enroll in Programming and Coding Lessons to understand all you guys just said...

THanks Anyway... befoore now i never even had the slightest idea what it was but now you guys have brightened the way

I have nearly no knowledge about Bitcoin technical side so sorry for my stupid question:
If in the end there is a hardfork, does it mean all the people who own BTC's will also receive the same amount in "BTC2"?
Same scenario like what hapened a few months ago with Ethereum and Ethereum classic?

Yes. The current blockchain history is kept on both forks so your pre-fork balance will carry over to both forks.

Thanks for your answer achow101.
So in case of a hard fork, I presume there is a risk of a massive crash on all the main exchanges trading altcoins as everyone will convert altcoins into BTC's?

It would likely be the other way around as every loses confidence in Bitcoin (i.e. which Bitcoin is the real "Bitcoin"). Anyways, this discussion is speculation and off topic.

On August 1st there will be user induced soft fork. So your Bitcoin will split into two parts maybe somehow. I dont know exactly what will happen and how to handle it. Also dont know what to do exactly.  :-\

Are we sure it won't happen earlier though?
Here I read (http://www.coindesk.com/bip-148-segwit2x-bitcoin-scaling-compromise-might-not-easy) "Activate the New York Consensus SegWit2 by July 31", does it mean the fork will happen on July 31 or that it can happen way earlier, considering SegWit2 already has 75% of blocks in the last 24h (https://coin.dance/blocks)?

I'm sure some people will say that SegWit/BU must be activated hard way even with risks chain split, community split, price crash or other else.
I also think that we might have to think that option, especially if tx fee become very high, there's altcoin which have at least 50% of bitcoin market cap or when the community tired with drama.

I wouldn't mine too much, as I recently wanted to pay something rather small in Bitcoin and was discouraged by the insane fees and I really think something must be done about this, or some altcoin will take over at some point.
But an advance notice would be nice: I have some bitcoins in trading platforms, and I'd prefer them to be in my wallet if and when a split happens...

I am not sure if I have understood the difference between Segwit and Segwit2x.

Segwit2x is basically segwit but blocksize will be 2MB, whereas normal segwit you could turn it from 1 to 4MB ?
Why does Segwit2x only need 80% minerpower whereas Segwit needs 95% ?

No. Segwit2x is segwit but makes the base block size (which is completely irrelevant thing anyways) 2 MB. This means that the theoretical maximum block size will be 8 MB. The block weight (which is the actual thing that matters for consensus rules) will be 8000000 (8 MB).

Because that is the percentage of the hashrate that the creators of segwit2x were able to convince to agree to deploy segwit2x. Segwit is 95% because it is following the BIP 9 deployment specifications which recommends 95%. Since it is a consensus rule change, we want have a percentage of hashrate supporting the change as close to consensus as possible (consensus being 100%) to avoid chain splitting.

soft/hard fork are just a way to improve bitcoin network or change rules in bitcoin network
implications are huge or little ones but they always are

"Inject sperm in your mother, if you want to inject sperm."  ;D

On a serious note, I have known about and kept on top of Bitcoin since 2013, and still have very little idea how Segwit works. With that said, I am hoping it significantly reduces transaction times and fees as the current state is unsustainable and needs to get solved asap.

Ok, here's the big difference and how it applies to most users.  Let's say that I have 10 BTC in a wallet, software wallet, and a coder decides that he has a better system for Bitcoin, he alters the code and hard forks the new chain, if the consensus of the nodes like his chain better and use it, and the hard fork becomes the dominant fork, then my wallet, my address and my balance are meaningless.

If the old fork remains, then I still have my BTC  ;)
IF the same thing occurs with a soft fork, the consensus can go either way and I keep my balance. 
That is not to say that a soft fork can involve dangerous code that can make that 10 BTC balance worthless, but with the soft fork all that historic data is still valid. 
 

Are exchanges "users" in the segwit?

They have big amounts, I can imagine If they do not cooperate this will not work?

Scaling bitcoin would be important but dangerous. We don't know what will be the consequence if ever we had a fork but I'm optimistic that developers will come up of something that would solve this dilemma .

I would also like to give an outview on what could actually happen:

1. You will maybe get two coins! But be careful not to hold them on an exchange!
2. The price might drop really hard, actually it already does as no one with Mio in coins wanna risk to lose them
3. Just take a look at what happenede to ETH. A hard fork seems bad but maybe it will make something out of it.

I only have something like 0.07 BTC in my total savings, which I will make sure to keep on my own wallet by 30 July. To be honest, I am not very worried if anything happens to it, yes I will lose almost $180 but that is a very remote possibility.

I will just find it strange that I will have 0.07 BTC and 0.07 whatever else.

Andreas explains forks for "newbies"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpeceXY1QBM (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpeceXY1QBM)