what is a fork?

[InnMind.com]

Check this article. It's pretty much explained here http://cryptocurrencyfacts.com/understanding-hard-forks-cryptocurrency/

[SevenSign]

In this forum, we can learnt everything we want to know. A lot of thoughts, a lot of ideas, so meaningful and become tools for everyone, most the beginner, or a brandnew same as like me, as a newbie.
Gratitudely thank u so much, with a heart.

[Coinster]

People get confused with this word. I'll try to explain with an easy example. First you have to understand what is a protocol. A protocol is a way to do something, like dancing. Imagine there are rules to a dance saying everybody raises their right hand in the air and spins around, but keep the left hand down. Now see 5 people dancing this way, now 20 people now 100! Everybody is doing the same dance, following the protocol, meaning they are in "consensus". Looks cool, right? Okay, now imagine one person raises their right hand too. They broke the rules! Now, most people are dancing the same but somebody is not. We would say that person "forked" away from consensus. Make sense?

In Bitcoin it's important to have consensus, because when there is a fork it causes some reaction in the real world. For example, everybody using Bitcoin knows there are only 21 million coins. If somebody says there are 50 million coins they have forked. So everybody should ignore that fork if they don't want Bitcoin to have 50 million coins.

Now that you understand forks, here is a longer technical explanation on the difference between hard-forks and soft-forks regarding Bitcoin: https://medium.com/@octskyward/on-consensus-and-forks-c6a050c792e7

[Abn]

Fork is a considerable update (change) to be done on a system, especially in crypto currency.

[SevenSign]

Yes, its understood now. Its all brilliant xplanation, whats fork it is. Im so glad all of here really participate in every forum to help each other, and most to help newbies like us to easy understand everything regarding in this cryptoworld.
A lot of tnx! And good salute to all u.
Its christmas eve, happy holiday and feel the rhythm and spirit of christmas day.
More blessings to each and everyone, and more tokens to recieve in incoming 2018.

[rh154c0d3]

People get confused with this word. I'll try to explain with an easy example. First you have to understand what is a protocol. A protocol is a way to do something, like dancing. Imagine there are rules to a dance saying everybody raises their right hand in the air and spins around, but keep the left hand down. Now see 5 people dancing this way, now 20 people now 100! Everybody is doing the same dance, following the protocol, meaning they are in "consensus". Looks cool, right? Okay, now imagine one person raises their right hand too. They broke the rules! Now, most people are dancing the same but somebody is not. We would say that person "forked" away from consensus. Make sense?

In Bitcoin it's important to have consensus, because when there is a fork it causes some reaction in the real world. For example, everybody using Bitcoin knows there are only 21 million coins. If somebody says there are 50 million coins they have forked. So everybody should ignore that fork if they don't want Bitcoin to have 50 million coins.

Now that you understand forks, here is a longer technical explanation on the difference between hard-forks and soft-forks regarding Bitcoin: https://medium.com/@octskyward/on-consensus-and-forks-c6a050c792e7

i like your explanation and how you elaborated it. thanks for your explanation and shared link. 

[Tuanken897]

People get confused with this word. I'll try to explain with an easy example. First you have to understand what is a protocol. A protocol is a way to do something, like dancing. Imagine there are rules to a dance saying everybody raises their right hand in the air and spins around, but keep the left hand down. Now see 5 people dancing this way, now 20 people now 100! Everybody is doing the same dance, following the protocol, meaning they are in "consensus". Looks cool, right? Okay, now imagine one person raises their right hand too. They broke the rules! Now, most people are dancing the same but somebody is not. We would say that person "forked" away from consensus. Make sense?

In Bitcoin it's important to have consensus, because when there is a fork it causes some reaction in the real world. For example, everybody using Bitcoin knows there are only 21 million coins. If somebody says there are 50 million coins they have forked. So everybody should ignore that fork if they don't want Bitcoin to have 50 million coins.

Now that you understand forks, here is a longer technical explanation on the difference between hard-forks and soft-forks regarding Bitcoin: https://medium.com/@octskyward/on-consensus-and-forks-c6a050c792e7

Your explanation is very easy to understand. I didn't understand what the fork is before but I understand now. Thanks

[LuckySarah]

Fork is a considerable update (change) to be done on a system, especially in crypto currency.

Do you mean that update is made by special people like Satoshi Nakamoto or it's made by anyone who is enough qualified in IT development?

[eithercharon]

These coins multiply and they can really multiply really fast. These coins when taken can be multiplied and the one that is mind can be owned and the other can wait to be mined.

[Vik_the_Carpentner]

Fork is a considerable update (change) to be done on a system, especially in crypto currency.

Do you mean that update is made by special people like Satoshi Nakamoto or it's made by anyone who is enough qualified in IT development?

It's made by anyone who enough skillful with a coding. Even you can learn how to do your own fork and how to make people using it. 

[topgun911]

Ive seen some forks that dont even resemble the original chain or even principals the the original was derived from.  Crypto moves pretty quick.

[Jomblo Kronis]

so helpful to this forum, i just heard and i have a bit of a picture what the bitcoin fork is

[DennisStoff]

Fork is the name for an event that occurs when the developer team of a cryptocurrency agrees to apply new features / changes to the programming system of the coin. Usually this is done to secure the network cryptocurrency or adapt to the increasing number of coin users. Hard Fork can cause a mismatch between the old and new versions, so all cryptocurrency users need to update all applications associated with this coin in order to stay in good position.

[acuwibi]

the group is a group, involving many partie

[cloudyclauie]

I have recently seen many people discussing about bitcoin fork,and I literally have no idea on what it is.
No trolls please.

I also do not really understand what a bitcoin fork is, I've read from a blog, I remember a bit that bitcoin fork is a modified protocol or a blockchain protocol that is split into two or several parts. that's all I remember.

To know more about hard fork you should read this https://www.cryptocompare.com/coins/guides/what-is-a-bitcoin-fork/

i have also been wondering what a bitcoin fork means. Thanks for the link!

[MintDice]

Coin splits are created intentionally via forks of the blockchain, sharing a transaction history with Bitcoin up to a certain time and date.

Hope this helps!

[Blackfurysm]

Forks can occur from two different events. An accidental fork occurs if coin updates are not truly compatible. People using different versions of the software create two different ledgers–one from the older version, and one from the newer version. In this circumstance the coin developer must rapidly eliminate the bugs causing the incompatibilities and decide how to merge the different blockchains.

A hard fork is generated when the cryptocurrency’s developers decide that changes must be made to the programming of the coin that will create incompatibilities between the older and newer version. When the changes are made, all users of that coin must willing to update all applications to continue to use that coin type correctly.

If this is confusing, let us use Microsoft Word for example. Microsoft frequently releases new versions of Word. Each version attempts to be backwards compatible and retain the ability to read and edit older documents. However, often older versions of Word have great difficulty in reading documents created in one of the newer versions. So if you create a document in Word 2007 and your buddy edits and saves it in Word 2013, you may have problems reading it. Despite the assumption that its going to be the same document, you two have created a fork in your document.

You can read more about it at Here's the great project for basic reading [bitcoinwiki.org](https://en.bitcoinwiki.org/wiki/Main_Page)