A fork occurs when network makes a modification or a kind of change to the protocol of the blockchain or the rules and regulation guiding the blockchain activities for the sake of efficiency.
In a nutshell, a divergence in a blockchain can termed as a fork. In the event of forking there is a split in the blockchain which result into the exixtence of another chain with it coin (cryptocurrency). These blockchain will have the same information in common such as transaction histories but run on a parallel basis.
To improve blockchain functionality.
Fork helps in improving the functionality of the blockchain expecially when there are some aspect of it that is not really producing the desired result in the blockchain intented by developers
To strengthen the security system of the blockchain expecially when a breach is perceived.A very good example is that of ETHEREUM whose network was breached.
To settle dispute as regards cryptocurrency direction.
"Explain in details what a hard fork with examples (can be of any blockchain)
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A hardfork can be defined as any change that breaks backward compatibility. It therefore means that the nodes on the new or updated software will consider any transaction from the old or previous version as invalid. For mines on the old software or chain to be validate,the chain will need to be updated for validation. Now in a situation where the number or percentage of those who want to run on the old software exceed those who wants the new, there will be a divide or split process which will result in two separate currency.
A hard for requires what we call majority consensus from investors in the network or blockchain and for it to be adopted, there must be adequate number of nodes that must be updated to the new software protocol which allows them access to the new coin that is being formed as a result of the split.
Example of Hard fork
Ethereum Classic
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The ethereum classic was as a result of an hack in one of the application of the ethereum blockchain called DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) as a result of this event,majority of the investors/developers decided to move ahead with the fork that was created as a result of the hack while the minority decided to stay with the former software which gave birth to the name ‘Ethereum classic’ while the majority retained the name ETHEREUM. As a result of this fork event, these two network now have their own coin. The major thing that connects them is the fact that there will be similarity in the transaction history on their separate network especially in terms of the person that mined a block.
Hive
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Hive is another hard fork that came out of the steemit network.This was as a result of the disagreement that occured between the developer when Tron (TRX) came into the picture around February 2020. Those that didn't agree came up with the Hive network which still stands as we speak and have their own Cryptocurrency which includes HBD (Hive backed dollar) and powered by Hp (hive power)
"Explain in details what soft fork is with example (can be of any blockchain)
Soft fork can be defined as any modifiacation or changes that is backward compatible with the original or previous version. In the event of soft fork, older nodes considers new transaction on the blockchain network as being valid which is contrary to the hard fork works which doesn’t validate old mines because it has been updated via majority consensus. For soft fork to be activated, it requires majority of the network’s hash power otherwise it can be alienated from the network which will result into a hard fork.
Example of soft fork
Bitcoin Taproot
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This is one of the latest soft fork of the bitcoin blockchian. It still being proposed though and with the level of progress as regard this fork it will be launched very soon according to the information I researched from coindesk. The taproot soft fork is an ugrade on the bitcoin network which in promote effieciency in terms of multi signature, more secures transaction and cheaper transaction rate.let’s not forget that forks is as a result of the dissatisfaction of developers and this paves way for more improvements on the blockchain. The sam is what is playing out here with bitcoin’s taproot. Many miners have indicated interest for the activation of taproot if they are able to get substancial number of miners, taproot will be launche by November according to coindesk.
Segregated witness
This soft fork stem out of the bitcoin blochain and like and nit came into existence as a result of the need to safeguard against nonintentional bitcoin transaction and to overcome some limitation associated with the protocol such as the limit six of the block, it also came into existence in other to solve speed related problem when carrying out transaction and this is done by splitting the transaction into two parts and tweaking the witness data or what we also call the unlocking signature.
"What are the difference between Hard fork and soft fork
Soft fork
Hard fork
- They are less troublesome
- they are more troublesome.
- Legacy block are incompactible with soft fork
- Legacy block are compactible with hard fork rules
- Soft fork are more user friendly
- Hard fork are less user friendly
- Soft fork are Backward compactibility,clients can follow the old and new rules
- Hard fork are not backward compatible client following the old rules cant follow the new rules
"Explain the following Bitcoin Forks and explore the blockchain where necessary. Indicate if they are hard fork or soft forks;
Bitcoin cash
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Bitcoin cash is an hard fork. This Is an hard fork of the bitcoin. This coin was created in 2017. The bitcash was vreated as a result of a disagreement that occurred among the developers who wanted to effect some change on the blockchain. The modifiacation proposed by the so called bitcash developers is what gives bitcash some of the advantages it has over bitcoin which includes;
Cheaper transfer fee compared to bitcoin
It transaction time is very fast when compared to bitcoin
Bitcash can handle multiple transaction per second making it more flexible and timesaving
Segregated witnesses
This came out of the bitcoin blockhain and like it came into existence as a result of the need to safeguard against nonintentional bitcoin transaction and to overcome some limitation associated with the protocol such as the limit six of the block, it also came into existence in other to solve speed related problem when carrying out transaction and this is done by splitting the transaction into two parts and tweaking the witness data or what we also call the unlocking signature. The significance of this soft fork is listed below
To solve speed related issues in transaction
To safeguard against nonintentional bitcoin transaction.
To bypass certain limitation it the blockchain protocol.
"Write on the steem and Hive Hard fork and show similarity in their Genesis block (provide screenshot)
Hive is an hard fork of steem network. They are both decentralized social media platform. The fork was as a result of the disagreement that came up among the developers. According to my research, it happened that Tron acquired steem network in February 2020 and was integrated like we still have today but some decided to leave because they wouldn’t support the idea and that gave birth to Hive network .
Although this dispute in a way has been resolve to a large extent. For us to be super convince that steem and hive network are of the same family you will notice from the interface that they are somewhat similar and they both contain informations with similar as regards their transaction,the miners and time of mining as we will seeing shortly as we explore their networks.
Hive uses HBD (Hive backed dollar) and powered by Hive power while steem uses SBD (Steem backed dollar) and powered by steem.
Steemit and Hive interface using http://hive.com & http://steemit.com
Let's check out the Genesis block using the following links for both
Steemit and Hive blockchain
Hive block site
https://hiveblocks.com/
Steemit block site
http://steemworld.org
We can see that there is a relationship in both blockchain i.e initminer as the block producer and the block I.d also have the same code on both blockchain.
To further confirm the similarities in transaction,I inputed another random number which is block 4000 on both Steem and Hive
For Hive
For steemit
We can also see here that they have things in common too..the block producer here is steemit23 who mine the 4000th block and we also have the same I.D code including the witness signature
Conclusion
Forks to me is a good development if we'll handled by the parties involved because I've learn in the cause of my study that it helps to bring improvement to the blockchain and also modify the blockchain protocol to meet certain needs.
Thanks so much prof. @awesononso for this awesome lecture.I hope this homeworks that took me dayswill meet your expectations
Cc: @awesononso
