What is a ''Fork''?
As a request of our customers, we offer a blog about Bitcoin Fork, Bitcoin Cash.
Hard Fork is a technical change that occurs when the network participants can not agree on the old rules.
Simply put, the blockchain is divided into two parts, These two parts are different by 1) transaction history or 2) criteria for future transactions. As a result, network participants must decide which version of blockchain will be supported.
Also, when consensus happens, the fork occurs when two miners simultaneously solve a block. When this happens, one block (which is solved sooner) is added to the blockchain, and the second is called "Orphan Block". In case of Bitcoin Blockchain the miner will not receive a reward even though they have found the block solution (We will soon offer you a blog about orphan blocks). If part of the miners decide to add a new block to orphan block, fork will happen. This is the principle shown on the graph - where the upper graph shows "orphaned" blocks and the bottom - the real fork.
Hard fork
Hard fork is a blockchain program update that is guided by new rules. The new rules are irreversible, which means that the block created by the new regulations would apply to none of the old rules. For example, consider Bitcoin Cash. At this time, the size of the block increased to 8 MB, while the old Bitcoin block size was 1 MB. According to the original blockchain rules, the Bitcoin Cash block would not be considered valid. That is why the network was divided into two parts, part of the network participants updated their blockchain program and moved to the Bitcoin Cash blockchain, while some continued to work with the old rules.
Soft Fork
In contrast to a hard fork, the new rules do not contradict the old blockchain rules. Imagine that by using the new rules of Bitcoin Cash, the size of the block decreased to 500kb instead of increasing (for simplicity, it is the only rule change). Nodes, which did not update their own program, would still be able to validate Bitcoin Cash blocks as its size would be less than 1 MB, and this did not violate the old rules.
Thanks for looking in,
