Crypto Academy Season 3 Week 4 | Homework Post for Professor @awesononso — Blockchain Forks

It is a new week again. The past three weeks have been awesome for me for I have learnt more than enough by lectures posted by all beginner's professors. The lessons have been great so far. This new week, week 4 has started with a very interesting topic, 'blockchain forks.' Professor @awesononso has really done a great job. He taught the course in very simple way. Thanks, Prof. Six questions were posted by Prof. The questions read:

1.What is a Fork? (In your own Words)
2.Explain in details what a Hard Fork is with examples (Can be of any blockchain).
3.Explain in details what a Soft Fork is with examples (Can be of any blockchain).
4.What are the differences between Hard Forks and Soft Forks?
5.Explain the following Bitcoin Forks and explore the blockchain where necessary. Indicate if they are hard forks or soft forks;
Bitcoin Cash
Segregated Witnesses
6.Write on the Steem and Hive Hard fork and show similarities in their Genesis Blocks(Provide screenshots).

So, I'm going to pick these questions one after the other.

1. WHAT IS A FORK? (In your own words)

There are stages in life. When a child is born, he doesn't attain a 'walking' stage immediately. He has to undergo some stages before he starts walking. He would have to undergo 'crawling' stage, then afterwards, migrate to walking. And so on like that. When things are created, it requires some changes, too. The reason is, as people are growing, there would be a need to advance and adjust some things.

Blockchain also undergo changes after a long period of time. This change is often referred to as a fork.
In essence, a fork? occurs as a result of system update agreed upon by everybody who uses the network, the blockchain. Consequently, some changes happen. A fork results in separation of blockchain in two parts. It also leads to a change in protocol.

2. EXPLAIN IN DETAILS WHAT A HARD FORK IS WITH EXAMPLES (Can be of any blockchain)

Hard work is a type of fork which occurs when there is upgrade on blockchain. It is update that occurs on blockchain which results in splitting the network. In this type of fork, the protocol of the blockchain is upgraded and changed, and this makes the old blockchain and the new ones formed to be incompatible.
It is pertinent to know that the rules which the new blockchain that was formed will be operated separately since there have been changes done to it which is quite different from the old blockchain because of the protocol that was altered. The old nodes of the blockchain will also not accept the updated blocks, and this is fork is called backward incompatible update.

Examples of blockchain which has undergone a hard type of fork
Ethereum is an example of blockchain which underwent a hard fork.

Ethereum had a hard fork to reverse the effects of a hack that occurred in one of their applications (called the Decentralized Autonomous Organization or simply, DAO).

Before the update of the blockchain, there are a lot of disagreement among the users. Some of the users opposed the update, why some agreed. However, aftermath, there was a hard fork. Some who didn't agree with the update are the ones who continues to mine ethereum classic, ETC while the majority who migrated to new update have the original symbol of the ethereum which is ETH.

Another Examples of is btcoin cash. Bitcoin underwent a major update where by, the blochain has to be splitted into two. The new blockchain that was formed is btcoin cash (BCH).

3. EXPLAIN IN DETAILS WHAT A SOFT FORK IS WITH EXAMPLES (Can be of any blockchain)

This is a type of fork which takes place that doesn't not result in splitting of the blockchain. Unlike hard fork where new block operates separately from old ones, a soft fork does use the old nodes. That is it accepts both the old blocks and new blocks at the same time. In soft fork, the new update follows the old rules.
Examples of soft work is Segregated Witness (SegWit) Bitcoin protocol. This update took place in 2015.

4. WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HARD FORKS AND SOFT FORKS?

In the table below, I highlight the differences between hard forks and soft forks.

Hard Fork	Soft Fork
There is a separation of blockchain in hard forks	There is no separation of blockchain here.
Hard fork doesn't follow the old rules. It operates basically on the new rules	This follows the old rules.
This is backward incompatible	This is backward compatible
When hard fork update is carried out, a new coin or cryptocurrency emerges.	No new cryptocurrency emerges.
With hard fork upgrade, the blockchain becomes two, the old and new block.	The blockchain is just one, the old blockchain.

_{Table: Difference Between Hard Fork and Soft Fork}

5. EXPLAIN THE FOLLOWING BTCOIN FORKS AND EXPLORE THE BLOCKCHAIN WHERE NECESSARY. INDICATE IF THEY ARE HARD FORKS OR SOFT FORKS; BITCOIN CASH AND SEGREGATED WITNESS

As I explained earlier, forks are the event of update that's carried out on the blockchain. We can either have soft fork or hard fork. Bitcoin has undergone both hard and soft forks. And this leads us to:

1. Bitcoin Cash which is hard fork.
2. Segregated Witness which is soft fork.

Bitcoin Cash

Bitcoin Cash came into existence when a major update was done on btcoin blockchain. This changes were needed at the time.

Bitcoin was forked to create Bitcoin Cash because the developers of Bitcoin wanted to make some important changes to bitcoin

Most of the times, hard fork occurs when there is a lot changes or updates which need to take place. If the changes must occur, the developers and the users must come into agreement to go ahead with the update.

Now, let's try to explore btcoin blockchain of we can find something on the genesis block of btcoin and the new block forms BCH.
To explore this, let's use search engine, say Google. Let's type "Btcoin or btcoin cash block explorer" in the search box. What do we find? Below is the screenshot of the result

Now, let's click on first result. This will take us to the main website of the block explorer. And here we are. The main page shows.

_{Bitcoin block Explorer Website}

Now, we can see BCH and BTC at the top of the page. We will choose the one we want to find the genesis block for. Then we will type "0" (zero) in the search box.
Below is the screenshot of BTC genesis block details

Let's take note of the details on the screenshot. The time which is 7:15pm , UCT time, the age, 13years, the block which is '0'

Now let's see the Genesis block details of BCH, too. See the screenshot below.

As it can be seen from this screenshot, the time of Bitcoin cash Genesis block is 7:15pm, the age, 13year, the block 0, the size 0.285kb
If we compare the details of the two blocks together, we will realize that they are the same. This is to tell is that the new blockchain formed, that is btcoin cash, BCH finds its root from btcoin.

Segregated Witness

Segregated Witness is a soft fork done on Bitcoin blockchain with the purpose of preventing any kind of unintentional transaction of btcoin and to make sure some protocol are bypassed. When this type of fork is done on blockchain, it doesn't split blockchain into two, but it only improves the functionality of the network. Such is Segregated Witness.

It was also intended to mitigate a blockchain size limitation problem that reduces bitcoin transaction speed.

6. WRITE ON THE STEEM AND HIVE HARD FORK AND SHOW SIMILARITIES IN THEIR GENESIS BLOCK (Provide screenshots)

Steem is a decentralized social cryptocurrency platform which the users can monetize their content. Steem blockchain was in existence before Hibe blochain. When a major update was about the to be taken place on Steem blockchain, there was a lot of disagreement between the users.

At the the time of Tron integration on Steem blockchain, some people agreed that Tron (TRX) should be integrated but some people disagree with it. However, after a lot of of deliberation and argument, there was ugrade and this upgrade was a hard fork one.

And as we know that when there is hard fork, blockchain will be splitted into two, there was a blockchain that emerged, it is called Hive.
Some people who are not cool with the idea of Tron integration migrated to Hive and those who are in support retain Steem blockchain, where I'm blogging today.

Similarities between Steem and Hive in their Genesis Block

Now, let's show the similarities in their Genesis Block.
Firstly, let's look at the blog page for both steem and Hive.

Below is the screenshot showing steem page.

_{Steem Home Page}

Let's look at the hive home page, too.

_{Hive Home Page}

As we can see from those screenshots above, the page are very similar. They look alike.

Now, let's try to look at the genesis block of steem and Hive.
The tool I am using to explore the Genesis block of steem is steemworld. You can click HERE to visit the site.
Below is the screenshot of steem Genesis block.

_{Steemworld: Tool for exploring steem blockchain}

Now this is the steem genesis block. Let's take note of the details showing on the screenshot. Most importantly the time and date and the witness. The portion in rectangular box.
Date is 2016/03/24
Witness is initminer

By clicking on the virtual operation, we will see the producer and vesting power. Refer to the screenshot below to see what I'm talking about.

The producer is initminer
That being seen. Let's look at the hive block if we can see something similar.
The tool I'm using to explore hive Genesis block is hiveblock. You can click the website HERE to join me in exploring it.
Below is the screenshot of hive Genesis block details.

_{Hiveblocks: The tool for Exploring Hive blockchain}

By typing 1 on the search box, we can see the the details of the hive Genesis block. See the screenshot below.

We can actually see more details by clicking on the words "show raw virtual op data" in a rectangular box. See the detailed details of the hive genesis block in the screenshot below.

As it can be seen, the producer here is initminer
Date is 2016/03/24
Therefore, comparing those data we can actually say that steem and hive genesis blocks are similar.

That being said. Let's go more deeper by searching for block "300" on both of the tools used, i.e steemworld and hiveblocks.
Below is the screenshot showing the details of block 300 on the steem blockchain.
Below is the block 300 of steem blockchain

See the block 300 of hive blockchain

As we can see from these screenshot, the details are similar. The miner are the same and the time. This shows that the two blockchain share the same history.

CONCLUSION

Blockchain forks are event of update which happen as a result of changes which needed to be made on the network to improve the functionality of the the network. Before an upgrade is done on any blockchain, the users and the developers must come into agreement, this is because of its decentralization. That is everyone has control over the network.

Forks are of two types: hard fork and soft fork. Hard Fork is usually done when title is important to make major update on the network which is usually leads to splitting of block into two. The new block, when formed, operates on the new rules designed. Examples of such is btcoin cash which came into existence as a result of hard fork which btcoin underwent. Soft Fork is done only to improve the network. In soft fork, no splitting of block.

It is therefore pertinent to know that forks are needed time to time to keep the network stable and functioning.