Steemit Crypto Academy | Season 3 |Week 4 Homework Post for Professor @awesononso - Topic: Blockchain Forks

Question 1:
What is a fork? (In your own words)

Forks have to do with the fact that separate parties need to use the same rules to manage the history of the blockchain. In other words, this situation is referred to as a blockchain separation. When parties do not concur, some other chains may come out.

The major way of creating new digital currencies is to create them from the basics or you can fork a digital currency that is already existing. It also has to do with copying and pasting an existing cryptocurrency code, which is then developed and launched as a new cryptocurrency.

A lot of people have a different ideas from the other person. Therefore, we can not always agree when change is necessary to happen and this might lead to separation. To improve the transactions of certain blockchains, forks might be necessary.

Forks can either be soft or hard.

Question 2:

Explain in detail what a hard fork is with examples (Can be of any blockchain).

A hard fork is a protocol change in a way that the software validating according to the former rules will observe the blocks create just like the new rules as invalid. In a hard fork, the entire nodes meant to work in line with the new rules need to develop their software. If a team of nodes persistently use the old software while the other nodes utilize the new software, a fixed separation can happen.

Example of hard fork

Ethereum is a very good example. Ethereum has experienced hard forked due to the vulnerability in its code and it led the open space for hackers to penetrate. The scenario led to the idea of splitting the chain. Millions of dollars were stolen from people wallets and the community was asked to consider a hard fork that would have led to the drawback of the blockchain history to repay the loss. The hard fork proposal was rejected, some of the money was gotten back after series of negotiations. There was no agreement between the miner because some continue to mine with on old rules and some continued rules which led to permanent separation. The new version is called Ethereum while the old version is called Ethereum Classic.

In 2017, Bitcoin also had a hard fork which led to the creation of Bitcoin cash in other to accommodate more transactions.

I will show some screenshorts from ethereum and ethereum classic block explorer the see that the two blockchains have the same hash.

This is the hash for block 0 for Ethereum and Ethereum classic.
0xd4e56740f876aef8c010b86a40d5f56745a118d0906a34e69aec8c0db1cb8fa3

source and source

This is the hash for block 100,000 Ethereum an Ethereum Classic.
0x91c90676cab257a59cd956d7cb0bceb9b1a71d79755c23c7277a0697ccfaf8c4

source and source

Question 3:
Explain in detail what a soft fork is with examples (Can be of any blockchain)

A soft fork is referred to as a fork in the blockchain which can happen when old system nodes don't comply with the rule followed by the newly upgraded nodes. This could make former nodes allow data that look invalid to the new nodes.

This also implies that users that did not upgrade to new software will still be able to partake in validating and verifying. It's very easy to carry out a soft fork because most of the users need to upgrade the software. Whether the user has updated the software or not, all users will continue to recognise new blocks and manage the similarity with the network.

An example of a soft fork is when the new rule says that the block size will be a substitute from the present 20MB which is 20,000KB to 1,000KB. The users that have not upgrade can still continue to see that the incoming new transactions are valid. But the problem comes when the miners who haven't upgraded try to mine new blocks, their blocks will no be accepted by the network. Therefore, soft forks stand for a gradual upgrading mechanism just like those who have yet to upgrade

As far as there is support in the lowers chain just like the users mining in the blockchain, the two blockchains will consistently exist.

Question 4:

What are the differences between Hard Forks and Soft Forks?

Hard Forks	Soft Forks
Hard forks work on the protocol degree, which implies there will be a transformation in the software itself	Soft forks work on the system degree, which implies the transformations are in how processes and transactions are been done.
In terms of power, Hard fork doesn't require power	Soft forks implementation requires 51 percent of hash power.
When Hard forks occur, new systems are developed as a result of the split	The network doesn't split in the Soft forks.
When Hard forks occur, the entire users and nodes must upgrade	The users can still utilise the form versions although they can't access the entire feature of the new version.
Hard forks can return money to their real owners without the attacker's knowledge	Soft forks can't return the money from the attackers.

Question 5:

Explain the following Bitcoin forks and explore the blockchain where necessary. Indicate if they are hard forks or soft forks

Bitcoin Cash

Bitcoin Cash is a digital currency that is a fork of Bitcoin. Bitcoin Cash is a spin-off that was developed in 2017. In 2018 Bitcoin eventually separated into two cryptocurrencies which are Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin.

Bitcoin was forked to make Bitcoin Cash due to the fact that the developers of Bitcoin wanted to create some vital changes to the world of Bitcoin. But the developers of the Bitcoin community was not able to agree with the changes, some of the group these developers forked Bitcoin to develop a new version of the precise code with few modifications.

I will like to show you the source of the two cryptocurrencies to show that they both have the same origin.

Segregated

Segregated Witness is the process by which the block capacity limit on a blockchain is expanded by taking away signature data from Bitcoin transactions. When some particular parts of a transaction are taking away, this frees up space or capacity to accommodate more transactions to the blockchain. The basic word for Segregate means to separate, and witness are the signatures of a certain transaction. In other words, segregated witness definition in simple terms is to separate transaction signatures.

Most of the space in a transaction has a signature, a part of the input, which confirms that the sender has the needed money to make a payment.

Question 6:

Write on the Steem and Hive hard fork and show similarities in their genesis block(Provide screenshots)

Steem hard fork can be likened to others blockchain hard fork. The genesis of the hard fork is when Justin Sun's the foundation of Tron acquired Steemit. Sun's decided to introduce Tron token to the platform but the Steemit ecosystem quickly carried out a soft fork. Not too long, it introduced a splinter blockchain, Hive that copied over the entire tokens from Steem. The disagreement in the next less the Hard fork.

I will like to show you the Genesis of Steem blockchain.
Visit https//steemworld.org
Block 1
The blockchain ID is 0000000109833ce528d5bbfb3f6225b39ee10086

I will like to show you the Genesis of Hive blockchain.
Visit https://hiveblocks.com
Block 1

Conclusion

Everyone can always to some changes that might want spring forth. Since the Blockchain is a decentralised world, a disagreement might set in because of individuals perspectives which may lead to a split. Hard fork may be necessary some certain point in other to improve the network.

Thank you, professor @awesononso for the awesome lecture.