Bitcoin Forum

What is a fork?
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In open source software development, a fork (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fork_%28software_development%29) refers to the event of an independent project spinning off from the original project by copying the code base and develop in a different direction.

This happens when the community has a diverse and irreconcilable visions/plans for the future development of the project. For example, Litecoin (https://litecoin.org/) is a fork from Bitcoin (https://bitcoin.org/en/) because its developers copied the code of Bitcoin and launched as a separated project.

Due to the distinctive feature of blockchain that it relies on the entire network to run the exact same protocol, there are two kinds of forks: soft fork and hard fork.

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What is a soft fork?
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New rules by a soft fork allow a subset of the previous valid blocks, therefore all blocks considered valid by the newer version are also valid in the old version

A soft fork is forward compatible (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forward_compatibility), meaning that old versions of the protocol will recognize new blocks. If at least 51% of the hashing power (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Hash_per_second) shifts to the new version, the system can self-correct and maintain consensus on the blockchain. For example, the Bitcoin SegWit (https://www.coindesk.com/50-blocks-segwit-bitcoins-coming-upgrade-blockchain-game-changer/) upgrade on 21 Aug 2017 was a soft fork when the majority of the miners agreed to shift to the new version of the Bitcoin.

What is a hard fork?
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Hard forks ease block acceptance rules making previously invalid blocks valid in the new version, therefore effectively creating a new blockchain

A hard fork is not forward compatible on the contrary. Old versions of the protocol are not compatible with the new versions and therefore it requires everyone on the network to upgrade. The risk is that when a substantial amount of miners refuse to upgrade, a chain split is very likely to happen. For example, the creation of Bitcoin Cash (https://www.bitcoincash.org/) on 1 Aug 2017 was a hard fork from Bitcoin when the Bitcoin Cash developers disagreed with SegWit and decided to move onto the new blockchain.

Understanding the nature of forks is essential to keep track of the future development of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. For example, both Bitcoin (https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/2x-or-no2x-why-some-want-hard-fork-bitcoin-november-and-why-others-dont/) and Ethereum (https://www.coindesk.com/ethereum-client-update-sets-byzantium-hard-fork-date/) is going to have a hard fork soon. We will keep updating with regards to different forks, please stay tuned!

The article is extracted from our medium blog post (https://medium.com/cryptomover/what-is-a-fork-67ecd4809fb2).

Sources:
http://truebloodlawgroup.com/blog/What-is-the-difference-between-a-Hard-Fork-and-a-Soft-Fork/2524
https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/30817/what-is-a-soft-fork
http://etherworld.co/topic/22/hard-fork-in-ethereum

I do not know is it your orginal article but i have hope it is not copied from other site. Btw very helpful for newbie it will be definitly useful

Hi there! It is an article from our medium blog (https://medium.com/cryptomover) :) We also hope that this can be useful for newbies

Very very helpful to us newbies, thank you a lot! I was getting really confused with all this talks about forks recently. I admit I had a brief understanding but not enough to comprehend the whole thing. Again thank you!! :)

Good initiative, keep it up. we will stay tuned for further updates.

Now this is some good information for newcomers to absorve. Most just want to figure what's the next coin they should spend their money into and don't bother to learn some of the mechanisms behind the projects they support. This type of initiative can start to produce a change in the way that people initiate their journey in crypto. Well done.

Thanks for this info for the newbies :)

Detail and easy to understand information, thank you for the contribution. I believe it is helpful for the new members around.

A lot of mysteries have been solved. Thank you

Please add your source(s) in the OP. It will be considered as plagiarism and is punishable by permanent ban. To be sure, even if you mentioned where you get it but not specific enough, you should (again) add it to the OP.

Anyway, nice post.

I have added the sources. Thank you for reminding!

Thank you, this is a good article for beginners. At first, it is very difficult to understand everything and such articles as this very much help beginners

appreciate the post. Getting back into bitcoin and havent really heard of a hard fork before now. So even though bitcoin has all this exposure right now newbies aren't going to want to get involved because of the fork

Hi,

Newbie here so be gentle!  :)

I've heard there is to be a bitcoin fork on the 25th Oct. Is this anything to worry about?

The BTC price has increased 10% today alone, are we expecting a drop? How will the fork affect the price? 

Many thanks!

There will be some uncertainty so no one can tell you whether theres anything to worry about or not. The price will probably be unstable for a few weeks after the fork and trading could become difficult

Very nice explanation for the newbies in here, a lot of newbies have been asking this today, and it is difficult and so repetitive to explain it to all of them, but nice work in here.
Anyway, a lot of people are expecting too see bitcoin drop after the fork, but i dont think that this is going to happen, well, nobody knows what is going to happen after it, but i am sure that the price will remain up.

Thanks, that's actually very helpfull info

Thank you this is very helpful. If you could then please add how it affects Bitcoin price and how it is creating value for those who want to fork like BCH.

Very useful information for newbies, especially for who are fascinated about cryptocurrencies.

Fork is process of upgrading cryptocurrency environment more better, safe, secure and without interruption to main coding.
Soft form brings miner changes, but hard fork gives more updates and changes also can make impact on Newly hard forked cryptocurrency's price as well as on Bitcoin price too.

Thank you for such useful and detailed post. Could you also explain why forks affect bitcoin price so greatly?