Soft and hard fork ??

[huntingbtc5]

Hey,
As a newby i want to know more about bitcoin and blockchain technology. Can you guys help me understand Soft and Hard fork of cryptocurrency.
Thank you

[ranochigo]

Soft fork is when there is a change in the protocol and the old clients will recognise the new transactions and blocks as valid. Segwit is one of them; Older nodes simply ignored the witness message and they can still spend outputs from segwit transactions.

Hard fork is when there is a change in the protocol and only the new clients recognise the transactions and blocks as valid. Since the older clients do not recognise the new transaction and blocks, they will reject any of the transactions/blocks following the new rules. The un-upgraded nodes will thus diverge from the majority of the network and an update is mandatory.

[shulio]

Softfork means it is backward compatible, older bitcoin clients can understand the blocks.

Hardfork means the change in the codes is not backward compatible and the clients should upgrade their software with the new software.

[mithrim]

Hey,
As a newby i want to know more about bitcoin and blockchain technology. Can you guys help me understand Soft and Hard fork of cryptocurrency.
Thank you

There are actually many sources where you can easily find an answer to your question 
Aside from the obvious - Google - just search this forum (top right. Just enter "softfork hardfork"). You'll easily see that there are many threads regarding this topic, e.g.

[...]

Splits happen in the following situations:

 - In a contentious hardfork.
 - In a user-activated softfork (UASF) which lacks both majority mining power at the time of activation and near-unanimous support from the economy. If it has one or the other, then a split does not result.
 - In a BIP9-style miner-triggered softfork where a very large number of miners are lying about their enforcement of the softfork. (Unlikely.)

[...]

Or even direct links like these:
- https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Hardfork
- https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Softfork

As you see, the forum search is your friend  

[figmentofmyass]

the definitions used in bitcoin/cryptocurrency development slightly differ from conventional FOSS definitions. conventionally, a hard fork breaks compatibility with older clients, while a soft fork retains compatibility.

in bitcoin development, we consider a soft fork as adding new, more restrictive rules. a hard fork removes or relaxes rules.

this differs from conventional FOSS definitions because bitcoin can have soft forks that break compatibility with older clients. this happens when your client soft forks but a majority of miners do not---resulting in a chain split. 

Softfork means it is backward compatible, older bitcoin clients can understand the blocks.

Hardfork means the change in the codes is not backward compatible and the clients should upgrade their software with the new software.

correction: soft forks can be backward compatible, but are not always. (hard forks cannot be backward compatible)

[olgahappy]

A great example for a hard fork is the Ethereum DAO . Now we have two blockchains: ethereum and ethereum classic, both of which have a different ideal and a different currency. Soft forks have been the most popular option for updating the bitcoin block because they pose less of a risk of splitting the network. Previous examples of successful software forks include software updates such as IP 66 (which relate to signature verification) and P2SH (which changed the formatting of the bitcoin address).

[Emma Alex]

In simple words, a soft fork is where the old clients can receive the new transaction. The hard fork is where the old clients can no longer receive the new transactions. An upgrade is required for them.

[MintDice]

With a hard fork, the older version is invalid. With a soft fork, it just adds a small change to the existing version. This site offers a pretty detailed explanation on it all:

http://bit.ly/2xeEzVJ

Hope this helps 

[passioncrypto]

Hardfork deals with the change of codes and stuffs, and Softfork are old school stuffs older bitcoin clients knows it welly. this things are very basic and and we have to have clear knowledge, there are some free online courses also if i am not, you can look for those.

[Berfikirlah]

Considered in everyday life, surely many who choose a soft fork because it can accept our opinions with a broad field of chest, hard fork is a person who can not accept the opinions of others who disagree with himself.

[johnethearn]

Some years ago bitcoin investor are used soft fork and it was popular that time and hard fork is popular in recent times and it is updated.

[sandialoveth]

Bitcoin and blockchain technology is ruling the world nowadays btw Soft fork means when there is an adjustment in the convention and the old customers will perceive the new exchanges and squares as substantial. Segwit is one of them; older hubs essentially disregarded the witness message and they can even now spend yields from segwit exchanges. Hard fork means when there is an adjustment in the convention and just the new customers perceive the exchanges and pieces as substantial. Since the more established customers don't perceive the new exchange and squares, they will dismiss any of the exchanges/pieces following the new standards. The un-overhauled hubs will in this way separate from most of the system and a refresh is obligatory.

[tomwell]

I am fully agreed with the explanation of @ranochigo. He has explained it in the understandable way. You can google it to know more in detail.

[kevinpeck]

Well, it is good to know that you are interested in bitcoin and blockchain technology. First of all soft fork means backward compatible and hard fork means when there is a change in the protocol.

[msfiven]

An interesting question.
A softfork is a change to the bitcoin protocol where in only previously valid blocks/transactions are made invalid.
A hardfork is a change to the bitcoin protocol that makes previously invalid blocks/transactions valid, and therefore requires all users to upgrade.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/

[Ozkhan]

Hey,
As a newby i want to know more about bitcoin and blockchain technology. Can you guys help me understand Soft and Hard fork of cryptocurrency.
Thank you

Soft Fork : When anyone (anycoin) release an update on the blockchain, they can either release the update in such a way that the new version of software is completely backward compatible with the old version i.e. the old version would be able to interact with the new version (the people who have the older version and not upgraded yet can interact with the people having new version). The new version has some kind of extra features that are only available in the new version, if the fork is soft fork then those new feature shouldnot prohibit this backward compatibility.

Suppose I have not upgraded and i am using the blockchain with it's older version (fork) but you have upgraded and using the latest version of blockchain then in this case, i am able to communicate with you and also with the person who havenot upgraded yet. And you will also be able to communicate both persons.

but but i will not be able to use some extra features of the blockchain which are added after the updation so if i want to use those features then i need to update to the latest blockchain.

2. Hard Fork : It is an upgrade that is not compatible with the old version of software so if the block size in the blockchain is increased, that would be a hard fork because the new version of software that works with increased block size wouldnot be able to communicate with the old version of the software and vice-versa.

Those two different versions would be running on two completely different blockchains, these blockchains would look identically to point where the hard fork happens so they would agree on everything. Actually , they become two separate coins (blockchains) so if you are using old version sofware and people who have upgraded to the new version cannot communicate or send coins from old to new version so the new version becomes most relevant and majority of people switch to the new version. This fork splits the blockchain.

Blockchain developers usually tell everyone that from in about a week or a month or sometime we're going to have a hard fork, you can already now download new version however it will function exactly as the old one until that point and from that point in the future is going to function as the new version and that is to give time to people to upgrade and then the hard fork really happens. If the people dont upgrade, they will be on the old blockchain that is completely separated from the new blockchain.