Steemit Crypto Academy [Beginners' Course] Season three(3) Week four(4) : BLOCKCHAIN FORKS Homework task for prof. @awesononso by @ladyofpolicy.

Hello everyone,it feels so good to learn about blockchain forks for the very first time in my life. Indeed,its a very interesting topic although just coming across it for the very first time. Special regard to professor @awesononso for such an amazing lecture,thank you sir.

Without wasting time,I will like to answer the assignment questions based on the knowledge I grabbed from the lectures.

QUESTION 1.

WHAT IS A FORK? (EXPLAIN IN YOUR OWN WORDS).

image source

According to my understanding from the lectures,I can say that fork simply means "changes" which occurs in a block chain. The first cryptocurrency that ever existed is "Bit coin" which was created to function as a digital currency. After the the development of the first cryptocurrency,other cryptocurrencies was also developed and the process through which the new cryptocurrencies was developed is called fork.

Fork occurs mainly when the users thinks that there is a need for the fundamentals of the cryptocurrency they are using needs to be changed or improved. Change is one thing that remains constant in life and at every point there is always the need to change certain things and the same thing is applicable in the block chain.

A very good example of fork is bitcoin and Bitcoin cash. The bitcoin cash is a new cryptocurrency that originates from bitcoin through the process called forking.

Before a fork can take place in a blockchain,there will be an introduction of new features or tokens. These new cryptocurrencies are created by forking the old cryptocurrency. To create tokens from scratch is easy because it involves copying and pasting the techniques of the old code. Also,to create a new cryptocurrency from an old one the network has to split in order to create another version of the original blockchain.

Also know that when a block chain is going through a fork or change as the case may be,the cryptocurrency of that particular chain will undergo a shrink in value because of uncertainty amongst the investors but finally if the fork becomes successful,it will become beneficial to all and sundry.

QUESTION 2.

EXPLAIN IN DETAILS WHAT A HARD FORK IS WITH EXAMPLES (CAN BE OF ANY BLOCKCHAIN).

A hard fork in my understanding is a type of fork which occurs as a result of total integration of an already existing block chain into different chains which results in the formation of two new blockchain in which one will be a total new block chain and follow a whole new pattern while the other one will maintain the original protocol of the old blockchain.

This type of fork are done by users who are not satisfied with the current functionalities of the blockchain and hence needs an upgrade. After the integration of the old block chain,the users wil be given new tokens after which the users decides on which one to continue with. In hard fork,all users needs to upgrade to the new version and also a huge number of nodes is required in order to upgrade to the new version in order to continue,so a hard fork requires the majority support in order to stand.

Examples of Hard Fork;

• Bitcoin Gold (BTG);

image source

Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency that ever existed and is still in existence with the highest value amongst every other coins. From the day it was developed till date,it has encountered so many challenges. Bitcoin has has experience so many forks.

Bitcoin gold is a hard fork of bitcoin which broke out from the original bitcoin chain on the 24th of October 2017, having its currency deposited as BTG. While other bit coin forks has their purpose,the purpose of Bit coin gold it to make bitcoin decentralized again. Bitcoin is already decentralized in nature,that is it is not link to any central bank or government body,so one major issue which bitcoin which prompted the development of bitcoin gold is the "mining process" BTG developers believed strongly that by adopting a new algorithm for the mining process which is a proof-of-work algorithm called " Equihash-BTG",the new branch of the world's most popular cryptocurrency by market cap will not be impartial to users while carrying out mining operations.

• Bitcoin XT.

image source

Another example of bitcoin hard fork is the Bitcoin XT which is one of the first notable hard forks of bitcoin. The software was launched by Mike Hearn in late 2014 with its currency depicted as BXT. The purpose of developing this is to include several new features according to him. While the previous version of bitcoin allowed up to seven transactions per second, Bitcoin XT aimed for 24 transactions per second. In order to accomplish this, it proposed increasing the block size from one megabyte to eight megabytes.Source

QUESTION 3.

EXPLAIN IN DETAILS WHAT A SOFT FORK IS WITH EXAMPLES ( CAN BE OF ANY BLOCKCHAIN).

A soft fork is a type of fork which allows the old blockchain to be upgraded without integrating it to form a new block chain.

This type of of fork re-modifies the already existing blockchain,improves it,upgrades,edits and add new features as the case may be to the already existing block chain. By the end of carrying out this type of fork on a block chain,the blockchain will still maintain the common history and a common direction post-fork with the old block chain.

In soft fork,you don't necessarily need any node to upgrade to the new protocol in order to operate on the network because all the upgrade are done one the old nodes. A soft fork often occurs as a result of a solid agreement taken by the miners for an upgrade.

Examples of soft fork:

I will use an illustration to give a typical example of soft fork.

When the miners reach an agreement for upgrade in the blockchain,then a new rule will will be put in place in order to carry out the upgrade they desire.

A new rule which states that the block size which might be around 2MB (2000KB) currently,should be reduced to to 1MB (1000K).

In the above illustration,participants who haven't upgraded to the new rule will still continue to see that all incoming new transactions will still be valid,but hence the need to abide by the new rule will still be needed since its an agreement.

• QUESTION 4.

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HARD FORK AND SOFT FORK?

The difference between hard fork and soft fork are;

SOFT FORK

• It doesn't require any separation but rather it continues on the same block.

• It is considered to be less trouble some.

• It improves the already existing project.

• It is backwards compatible.

• It doesn't require any splitting of old version.

• It's more friendly to users.

QUESTION 5.

EXPLAIN THE FOLLOWING BITCOIN FORKS AND EXPLORE THE BLOCKCHAIN WHERE NECESSARY. INDICATE IF THEY ARE HARD FORK OR SOFT FORK.

• BITCOIN CASH
• SEGREGATED WITNESSES.

Bitcoin cash.

Bitcoin cash is a bitcoin hard fork which broke out from the original bitcoin chain in the year 2017. Its currency is BCH. The purpose of bitcoin cash is to help increase the block size in order to accommodate as much transactions as possible because of the fact that the original bitcoin has slow down in carrying out some of the functions as thousands of persons in the world makes use of it which slows down its time of functionality.

There are notable differences which exist between the old bitcoin and bitcoin cash which include:

• Bitcoin is very expensive while Bitcoin cash is a bit affordable.

• Bitcoin is not too efficient while bitcoin cash is very efficient.

• Bitcoin is slow and takes longer time to carry out transactions while bitcoin cash is very fast and runs at a very high speed while carrying out transactions.

image source

Segregated witnesses.

Segregated witnesses which is also known as SegWit is a a bitcoin soft fork which helps in limiting the size of blocks in a blockchain.

It was created with the purpose of helping to minimize the size of a bitcoin transaction by changing the format in which the transaction comes thereby increasing the number of transaction that can be contained in a block.

SegWit works in a way that first it has to reduce the weight of a transaction by splitting the transaction into two segments one which carries the address of the sender and the receiver then the second part which carries the the signatures which is the transaction witnesses and when this happens it reduces the space of that particular transaction making room for more transactions in the block.

image source

QUESTION 6.

WRITE ON STEEM AND HIVE HARD FORK AND SHOW SIMILARITIES IN THEIR GENESIS BLOCKS (PROVIDE SCREENSHOT).

The Steem and Hive Hard Fork.

Steem as we all know is a very popular cryptocurrency blockchain. Steem is a currency that powers the steem block chain and just like every other cryptocurrencies,steem has had its ups and downs which demands for changes. After all the ups and downs of steem,a hard fork of steem was birthed which resolved tye problem of steem and the integration gave birth to a whole new blockchain which is known as "Hive.

Hive on its own is the currency which powers the hive blog. Hive blog is a decentralized social media blogging platform just like steemit.

In steemit,the currencies are steem Dollars (SBD),and Steem and the influential token is Steem power (SP) while in Hive blog,the currencies are Hive, Hive Backed Dollar (HBD) and the influential token is Hive power.
There is no doubt,Hive is a hard fork of Steem.

Similarities;

I use http://steemworld.org and http://hiveblocks.com to show you the similarities to prove that Hive is the Hard fork of Steem.

• Interface.

Steemit main page which I got from http://steemit.com

Hive main page which I got from http://hive.com

Mainly looking at the main.page,you will see that both of them looks alike.

The genesis block.

Here is the Genesis block of Steem.

Here is the genesis block of

As you can see clearly, the producer and vesting shares are equal in both blockchains.

I took another block to prove the similarities.

Here are the screenshots of the Block 4500 of both blockchains.

The producer of Steem block 4500 is @steemit43 and vesting shares is 1.000 VESTS.

The producer of Hive block 4500 is @steemit43 and the number of vesting shares is 1.000 HIVE.

CONCLUSION

The world is constantly changing. People are longing for new things. Everyone at a point gets used to the old stuff and with regards to this,the need for improvement will always be.

Same thing is applicable in cryptocurrency,there is always a need for upgrading an old block chain or creating a whole new block chain but which ever way,fork must be involve in order to get this change that are often needed. Fork can either be done by developers or the miners.

It is of great importance to understand this topic very well because of future purposes.

Thank you so much professor @awesononso for this amazing lectures as I anticipate your review.

CC:
@steemblog
@awesononso