Bitcoin Forum

Newbie here. What is hardfork!?

Hardfork is an increasing the block size for example Last year end Bitcoin is introduce the segwit2x so that time all the Bitcoin transaction and minings are crash the network and Segwit2x is block the one phase of network in Bitcoin. So every transaction is delay it take more than one or two days but after launching the segwit2x it is very much faster transaction. After hardfork Bitcoin is increasing the block size. If you want to clear explanation you should check internet.

HardFork is an event that happens when the developer team of a cryptocurrency agrees to apply new features/changes to the programming system of their coin, usually done to secure cryptocurrency networks or adapt with the growing number of coin users

Sorry but that reply is wrong. Hardfork is not increaseing block sizes. But just continuing blockchain with new set of rules. You can read here a little bit more about hard fork. Following link: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/hard-fork.asp

I can tell you more easily. There are certain rules for any coin. Over time, some shareholders want to change the rules but do not reach a General consensus. Then part of the shareholders go out of the system and create their own coin with their own rules. This is called a Hardfork. Usually, during such a division, each coin holder receives the same amount of new coins free of charge.

A blockchain is based upon the agreement of the transactions that are contained in the blocks and require that all nodes play by the same rules. If some nodes decide to play by diferent rules the chain is forked in two. There is much more to it of course.

a block chain goes in one direction only and it is temper proof, transactions are logged in blocks.

Bitcoin developers have arguments on to increase block size to allow more transactions or not and that divided the community.

Those who wanted to increase block size went ahead with the changes (now known as Bitcoin Cash). These changes are not compatible with Bitcoin and now we have two different chains running parallel.

Any transactions before fork (before Bitcoin Cash was created) will be valid on both chains. Yes, satoshi has stash on bitcoin and bitcoin cash intact.

technically, according to the wiki:


https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Hardfork
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Softfork

i'm not a huge fan of the definitions that bitcoin developers adopted, but there you have it.

to me, a hard fork should be about prima facie incompatibility. does the fork cause incompatibility with older clients? if yes, then it should be considered a hard fork. for instance: UASFs are considered "soft forks" even though they are prima facie incompatible. they cannot be compatible unless and until a majority of miners adopt the UASF.

that means UASFs can be indistinguishable from hard forks (as defined). if miners don't actively upgrade, it's as if they removed consensus rules from their software. that's a hard fork. in that situation, legacy clients follow the miners and UASF clients split onto a separate blockchain...

consensus is complicated. ;)

Hardfork is a permanent divergence from the previous version of the blockchain, and nodes running previous versions will no longer be accepted by the newest version. After a short period of time, those on the old chain will realize that their version of the blockchain is outdated or irrelevant and quickly upgrade to the latest version.

A Hard fork is a change in a cryptocurrency’s protocol which makes previously valid blocks invalid, therefore requiring all users to upgrade. If you want abit more information on this and the differences between a Hard and Soft fork I've provided you with a link which I think might help you.

https://www.weusecoins.com/hard-fork-soft-fork-differences/ (https://www.weusecoins.com/hard-fork-soft-fork-differences/)

You can make the description even easier (newbie friendly)

First, you'll have to understand what a Fork is (in the crypto terms). You have your original Blockchain - it goes forward in one direction. Forking (Hard or Soft) then splits the chain up.

If you HardFork, you create a new chain that has the history of the original chain, but the two chains are no longer compatible with each other.
A very good example is Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, they share the same history, however at a certain point in time, they split up and became two unique coins. It's then down to miners and the community what chain they wish to support.

A Softfork would be when you have a change to the code, but the new version is still compatible with the old version, look at segwit on Bitcoin for an example.

This is a very simplistic explanation, if you want to learn more then google is your friend, there are an insane amount of articles that explain this in a lot more detail :)

Hard fork - change in cryptocurrency protocol that introduces a new rule into network, which becomes incompatible with the old software.

I got a bit confused here, seeing contrasting answers to the question asked, but at the end of the day I have been able to deduce the actual meaning of Hardfork.