I enjoyed the lecture and here is my entry Prof @awesononso

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Question 1
What is a Fork?

First let me draw an analogy. When you see a fork, I mean the utensil we use in eating, we will notice that it has split like tongs. However these tongs though separate are connected to one handle or body. This is the same as Fork in Blockchain. A fork happens when a change to the blockchains protocol or basic set of rules are made by a community. When this occurs, the chain splits giving birth to a Second Blockchain that shares its whole history with the original but is headed off in a new direction. For this basic set of rules to have meaning or essence they must be adopted by the full node users of the network. The reason being the decentralized nature of blockchains.
There is no perfect invention, so to correct the flaws a blockchain may have and match the insatiable demands of the community, blockchains undergo a Fork Process.
There are two types of Forks

Hards Forks

Soft Forks

Question 2
Explain in details what a Hard Fork is with examples.

Hard Fork

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Hard Fork also known as Backward-Incompatible occurs when there is a split or division of a blockchain into two different chains. One chain becomes a continuation of the original protocol while the other would follow new rules. It is referred to as Backward-Incompatible because the fork changes the consensus protocol that the new software becomes incompatible with the old one.
The Original Blockchain and the New Version that abides by its own new set of rules. This can lead to the creation of an entirely new cryptocurrency. In this type of fork, nodes which upgrade to the new protocol will consider blocks from the previous chain as invalid and vice versa. Blocks that were regarded as invalid could become valid and nodes that wants to run on the new chain must upgrade to that network.

An example of a hard fork is the:

Ethereum Classic

This splitted the Ethereum Blockchain into Ethereum and Ethereum Classic. The Fork occured as a result of a hack in June, 2016 which led to the theft of millions of dollars. Then there was a hard fork to reverse the hack which returned the stolen funds to the owners. While the hack was reversed on one branch, the other branch kept the hack in its official ledger. Reference

Question 3
Explain in details what a Soft Fork is with examples?

Soft Fork

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Soft Fork is regarded as Backward-Compatible. It is a type of fork that brings actual upgrade to a blockchain network. When a Soft Fork occurs it doesn't lead to a split in the blockchain and upgraded nodes and old nodes can still effectively work together to create blocks on the chain. As long as it is adopted by most users or miners, it becomes effective and a currencies new set of standards. Soft forks have been used to bring new features, functions and what have you. Blocks created with the new rules are still validated by old blocks.

An example of a Soft Fork is :

Bitcoins Taproot

It is a Bitcoin update that promises to keep some transaction details buried deep in the metaphorical soil. It's on track to be the biggest Bitcoin Upgrade since 2017 Segregated Witness. With Taproot all parties in a transaction can co-operate to make these complex transactions look like standard person-to-person transactions. Taproot would enhance privacy while reducing the amount of data needed to make them, thus lowering transactions costs that have become much higher.
In order for the upgrade to go through, 90% of the mined blocks during that period needed to include data from the miners known as Signal Bit. Taproot will go live in November if the target is reached. Reference

Question 4
What are the differences between Hard Forks and Soft Forks?

Soft Fork	Hard Fork
All or most of the miners must agree to the upgrade	When a greater number of miners in the opposition disagree it often leads to a split
It's not mandatory for miners to upgrade to the new blockchain	Users must upgrade to the new blockchain.
Old nodes can validate transaction on the new blockchain	Old nodes can't validate transactions on the new blockchain.
There is no creation of new token	New tokens are created as a result of the split.

Question 5
Explain the following Bitcoin Forks and explore the blockchain where necessary. Indicate if they are Hard Fork or Soft Fork.

Bitcoin Cash

In other to stay true to the original vision of Satoshi Nakamoto for scalability on Bitcoins Blockchain. It has led to a number of Forks in Bitcoins Blockchain of which Bitcoin Cash is the most successful.
Bitcoin Cash is a response to Segregated Witness so as to avoid the protocol updates which brought about a split. In August, 2017 Bitcoin Cash broke off from the original blockchain. The aim was to increase the block size so as to accommodate more transactions. It is able to process transactions faster than Bitcoin, this means shorter wait times and lower transaction processing fees. Like earlier explained when a Hard Fork occurs old nodes invalidates new ones and vice versa. This principle applied and that was why as of 2017 Bitcoin Cash wallets rejected Bitcoin transaction and blocks. In 2018, BCH increased its block size to 32MB. In November 2018 Bitcoin Cash experienced its own Hard Fork resulting in the creation of Bitcoin SV. Reference

Segregated Witness

Segregated Witness is a Bitcoin soft work that was introduced to reduce the size of each Bitcoin transaction, allowing more transactions to take place at once. It prompted Hard Forks after it was proposed. It was implemented in 2017 and like Soft Forks, the blocks from this upgrade are seen as valid by old nodes. It reduces the size of a Bitcoin transaction by changing the format that these transactions come. This increases the number of transactions that can be contained in a block.

Question 6
Write on the Steem and Hive Hard Fork and show similarities in their Genesis Blocks.

Steem has undergone it's own fork process. This was as a result of the integration of Tron, this led to a split Steem and Hive. This integration was not supported by some miners and the Hive Blockchain was formed. This blockchain like steem operates a decentralized blog but it has its own token just like all Hard Forks new tokens are created. They're Hive, Hive Backed Dollar and then Hive Power.

From the aforementioned we can already see certain similarities which we shall identify by using their Genesis Blockchain.

1. We shall go to steem site https://steemworld.org/ and locate the genesis block through the block explorer labelled block See details below.

Time Stamp-2016-03-24, 17:05:00 UTC +1(Nigerian Time)
Witness- @initminer

Vesting Shares- 1.000000 Vests

These are the marked details in the pictures above.

We move to the Hive Blockchain and look at its Genesis Block

Click on the site https://hiveblocks.com/ and type 1

The page opens and we can see some details. The first witness @initminer

Seeing all the details we will discover that the vesting power, time stamp and witness are all the same with that of the Steem genesis block

This shows that Hive is from the Steem blockchain and they share the same origin.

Conclusion

Blockchain Forks depicts the need to solve or eliminate the drawbacks in a blockchain. In a bid to provide solutions there maybe conflict of interest which is characterized by human factor and eventually leads to a split, new tokens and new upgrades are formed. We can see that the adage necessity is the mother of invention applies. The necessity to stay true to the original vision of Satoshi Nakamoto led to a split in the Bitcoin Blockchain.
We can see from here that Blockchain Forks can lead to the creation of new cryptocurrencies as well to address certain flaws thus expanding the Crypto Space.