Crypto Academy / Season 3 / Week 4 - Homework Post for @awesononso/ Blockchain Forks

A wonderful evening from here and it is good to be a part of this week's class. Today I will be looking at Blockchain Fork, a class by @awesononso and I will be answering questions from the homework. Without wasting any time, I should begin immediately.

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Fork

When this word comes into place, it is related to two scenarios, either a fork of a codebase or a fork of a live blockchain. A fork can either be achieved by completely creating an entirely new ledger or by creating a new coin from an already existing coin.

Let me do a little explanation on the two Scenarios, CodeBase Fork is the process of copying the code/program of a blockchain, adding improvements, and creating an entirely new chain. This was how most altcoins were created. Litecoin was a fork of Bitcoin's code and so are any more. Livebase Fork is regarded as chain Spilt where a chain is divided/split. This can occur intentionally or as a mistake. Unintentionally, Chainsplit can occur when a blockchain software is upgraded but not all miners omit the upgrade thereby causing a split in the block which makes the block produced incompatible with the rest of the network. This has happened severally with Bitcoin dating back to 2010, 2013, and 2015. 1. While these concepts are known, there are basically two types of Blockchain fork, which are; The Hard Fork and the Soft Fork.

Hard Fork

With Hardfork, there is a change in the Blockchain rules/codes which are not reversible or backward-compatible thereby leading to a chain split as a result of failure to upgrade to the software. This chain split will cause the existence of two blockchains; one is the former (original blockchain), and a new Blockchain but will still have data of its previous blockchain but with a different currency.

• Case: Bitcoin Cash Hardfork
  If you will mention a successful fork of Bitcoin, then you will make mention of Bitcoin Cash. Bitcoin Cash is a hard fork of Bitcoin core. The two blockchains have a history together until the 478,558 blocks when the chain split occurred. This occurred in August 2017.

The aim of Bitcoin Cash is to speed, censorship resistance, cheap, decentralized and a digital cash.

Soft Fork

This is a change in the code/rules in a blockchain that can be reversed or is backward compatible. With this type of fork, participants who do not upgrade will still have a valid block in the chain.

• Case: SegWit
  A very good example of a soft fork is Segregated Witness (SEGWIT), Bitcoin's upgrade to increase the number of data stored in the block by changing the format in which data are stored and validated on the block, but these blocks can still be validated by the miners who didn't upgrade to SegWit.

Difference Between Hard Fork and Soft Fork

Hard Fork	Soft fork
Complete Slit of the chain to another chain	Upgrade of Chain but no splitting of chain
Cannot be reversed and both old and new blockchain seizes to share history after split	It is reversible and all witness in the chain can still mine/validate blocks
Currency changes after fork thereby creating two/more currency depending on the number of forks	Currency remains the same and there is no change in currency.

Bitcoin Cash

Bitcoin Cash is a hard fork of Bitcoin which occurred in August 2017 after the 478,558th block. The purpose of the hard fork was to increase the block size, increase anonymity, speed, and scalability. It shares many characteristics with Bitcoin such as the 21-million-coin limit, but with differences such as the size of the block (Bitcoin has 1MB while Bitcoin cash has 8MB - 32MB).

Segregated Witnesses

Popularly known as SegWit, it is a Soft Fork of Bitcoin which involves a protocol upgrade thereby allowing the increase in block size from 1MB to 4MB with the content in the block and the witness signature beneath the block.

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Steem and Hive Hard fork

Hive is a fork of Steem which occurred as a result of an agreement within a specific number of witnesses who didn't agree with a few changes in leadership. Since it is a blockchain, it is decentralized and anyone can fork from the chain and with this, the witnesses forked from Steem to form Hive (a DPoS blockchain).

Just like the Steem Blockchain, everything remains the same except for a few soft forks by both chains. These two chains have the same Genesis block and the block can be found by looking at https://steemworld.org/ (for Steem) and https://hiveblocks.com/ (for hive).

To check for the Steem Genesis block, Go to https://steemworld.org/, log in. Click on "Block Explorer" which will lead to a page where blocks can be checked.

To check for Steem genesis block, you search for 1 in the block.

The Genesis Block shows in the page.

On the other hand, it can also be checked by visiting Steemd.com (https://steemd.com)

The next step is to search for 1 in the search box after which the first Steem Block appears.

To check for Hive's Genesis Blockchain, you visit https://hiveblocks.com, then input 1 in the search box to search for the first blockchain.

After clicking on the search, the first (Genesis) Block appears.

Both Genesis Blocks are the same for both chains and the witnesses are the same. This is because both chains share history until their split.

Conclusion

Hardfork is a very serious decision to take in a chain as it involves an irreversible action. Although it is a serious thing, most holders of a coin enjoy a fork as they now own two coins for free as a result of the fork.

Hard Forks and Soft Forks are completely different as one includes splitting the chain and creating a new coin while the later involves an upgrade in the protocol/chain which doesnt lead to a split.