Steemit Crypto Academy [Beginners’ Level] | Season 3 Week 4 | Blockchain Forks. Homework Post For Professor @awesononso
HOMEWORK
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).
A fork is when a block splits or diverges into two. It is also the change to the protocol from the old or previous version of a blockchain, in a decentralized form. A fork occur when a new or an alternative block is created by a miner, the system reaches consensus and this block becomes invalid, and rejected or abandoned by other miners.
In simple terms, a fork is the split or change in the protocol of a blockchain into two with common history. There are two main types of fork blockchain and they includes; Hard and Soft fork.
A hard fork as in blockchain technology, is the fundamental change that occur in a network's protocol that makes the previous block invalid and transactions valid. A hard fork demands or requires all users to upgrade to the new or latest version of the protocol software.
A hard fork is when users of the new version of a blockchain reject the old version of the blockchain, and has create a permanent change or divergence from old version. There is incompatible in hard fork blockchain, and so only the users with the same software protocol can communicate.
In a hard fork, the original blockchain grants the holders of tokens in the new blockchain, where the miners had to choose from which blockchain they will continue to verify.
A hard fork can occur in Bitcoin and any other blockchain.
Example of hard fork is Bitcoin, which diverged into two separate blockchain, thus the original been Bitcoin (BTC)and the new been Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and this occur as a result of the one best for scaling in 2017, as the Bitcoin Cash intend to increase block size, the Bitcoin opposes it.
A soft fork as in a blockchain technology, is the change to the software’s protocol where only the old or previous valid block transaction are made invalid. In soft fork blockchain the old users or nodes will recognize the new block as valid, and so it seen as a backwards-compatible blockchain.
In the case of soft fork, it demands majority of the miners to upgrade in order to ensure the enforcement of the new rules, and not like the hard fork where it demands all users to upgrade and accept the new version.
In soft fork blockchain there is a new transaction type, which only requires the participants and miners understanding, and is done by the new transaction appearing to old users as “pay-to-anybody” transaction and the miners is to accept or reject the block unless the transaction validates under the new rules.
In soft fork, the participants who were not able to upgrade to the new software can still participate in verifying and invalidating transactions, and also the new rules added do not clash with the old rules.
Example of soft fork is segregated witness (SegWit) fork, but this occurred in short time, after the Bitcoin split to Bitcoin Cash. The updation of the segregated witness changes block and transaction format, which was crafted.
| HARD FORK | SOFT FORK |
|---|---|
| Demands all the users to upgrade and accept the new version | Demands majority of users to upgrade and accept the new version |
| Result in the diverging a blockchain into two | Result in improving the existing blockchain |
| There is creation of new currency | No new creation of currency |
| Displays backward incompatible | Displays backward compitable |
Bitcoin cash is a fork cryptocurrency from Bitcoin created in August 2017, and this was as a result of the disagreement among the Bitcoin users to the SegWit idea. Also it follows the opinion that the Bitcoin block size is reducing and the number of transactions carried out on the blockchain. As other users disagreed with the SegWit they intend to modify the Bitcoin blockchain protocol to create what is called Bitcoin Cash.
The Bitcoin Cash result from the hard fork which occurred in August 2017. It process more transactions and improved scalability, as it block size has increased. The Bitcoin Cash was created in order to accommodate more block size as compare to Bitcoin, which allows more transactions to a single block. Since the Bitcoin Cash is a hard fork from Bitcoin, they have some similarities like having the same consensus mechanism and also capped their supply at 21 million, but later splited in to ABC Bitcoin Cash.
The Bitcoin cash has some features which makes it a new blockchain from the Bitcoin blockchain, and this includes; speed of transactions, transfer fees and also the number of transaction are ahead of Bitcoin.
The SegWit is a fork cryptocurrency, which brought about the forking of the Bitcoin blockchain, through its proposal. The proposers of the SegWit, indicates the fact that, there is no need in increasing the Bitcoin’s block size, because any increase will demand more hardware in order to run on the blockchain.
The SegWit fork was created when those who agreed with the proposal had just moved ahead to make some small changes on the Bitcoin blockchain and SegWit fork was created. The main motive behind the creation of this fork was not to create a new blockchain or cryptocurrency but to only make a slight or small modification to the Bitcoin blockchain protocol, which is has acomplished through soft fork.
Those who against the proposal did not upgrade, but they can still make transaction verification in the blockchain, since it is a soft fork, backward compitable is allowed. The SegWit had Bitcoin improved proposal number BIP141.
Steemit is a decentralized system which rewards it users with steem for posting good and quality content on the blockchain, but in late 2020, an information came on board that, TRX will be integrated into a reward on the blockchain, and since it is a decentralized blockchain, other users agreed and others also disagreed to this development, but after sometimes, a forking process has been initiated and brought a new blockchain called Hive.
Which the Hive and Steem has some similarities like; their interface, currency Steem (SBD) and Hive (HBD), voting power Steem (steem power) and Hive (hive power) and others.
Now exploring their genesis block to see whether we will have further similarities among them;
We will explore steem using
We will explore hive using
After exploring their genesis block, the following similarities has rectified and this includes;
•Their timestamp. 2016-03-24, 16:05:00
• Their account witness of the transaction. initminer
• Their signing key.
STM8GC13uCZbP44HzMLV6zPZGwVQ8Nt4Kji8PapsPiNq1BK153XTX
In conclusion, it clearly indicates that, forks mainly occur as a result of disagreement among users on a blockchain, as compared to how the Bitcoin Cash and SegWit were created.
Thank you.
Cc: @awesononso
Hello @patrickbonyah,
Thank you for taking interest in this class. Your grades are as follows:
Feedback and Suggestions
You really need to try to understand the topic better so that you can properly express yourself after doing research.
You have missed some necessary points and info on the topic.
You really should take the time to verify your facts when you write.
Thanks again as we anticipate your participation in the next class.