Steemit Crypto Academy [Beginners’ Level] | Season 3 Week 4 | Blockchain Forks | By @uzoma24

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INTRODUCTION

Just like every other software undergoes upgrade or update, Blockchains are also updated. This update is known as fork in Crypto currency. This occurs when some people are not satisfied with all what the block is offering them at the moment and therefore, they desire some changes (upgrade). Because of the decentralized nature of a blockchain, fork can happen at any where and at anytime because it is an open source and accessible by the general public.

1.What is a Fork? (In your own Words)

A Fork is a change in protocol. This happens because decisions in Blockchains are made collectively by all the members of the crypto community. Because people see things differently, some may desire improvements on the existing protocol (upgrade) to ursher in a better result. Forks can occur anytime or anywhere because it is a decentralized system and as such very accessible to the general public.

The volatile nature of a Crypto Currency is normally high when it is undergoing a fork, this is because of uncertainties amongst the investors. Eventually, if a fork process is successful, it's beneficial to all. A fork may be initiated by developers or miners of the crypto community who are dissatisfied with the functions of the existing blockchain. There are two types fork; hard fork and soft fork.

Hard fork:- Is a radical change that affects the network protocol of the blockchain. which makes the previous blocks consider the new blocks as invalid and the new blocks also consider the previous blocks as invalid. At this point, the blockchain splits into two.

Reasons to create a new coin:-

• To correct security lapses
• To reverse a transaction.
• To upgrade the system.

2.Explain in details what a Hard Fork is with examples (Can be of any blockchain).

Hard Fork:- This is otherwise known as backwards incompatible. This is when there a general overhaul of the rules that govern a particular blockchain. Here, the old nodes and new nodes do not recognize nor validate each other (old protocol and new protocol). At the end of this fork, the blockchain splits into two permanently, and by so doing, two currencies are formed. (The old currency and the new currency)

• Old protocol
• New protocol.

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Old Protocol:- The nodes here will continue to operate with the old protocol and continue to form new nodes along the blockchain. The miners will then have to choose which fork to be verifying; the old or the new. If a miners want to start verifying on the new chain, he only needs to upgrade from the old to the new.*

New Protocol:-** These are new nodes that have been formed as a result of the fork. They operate on a different protocol and therefore have formed a new currency. The holders of the original currency will be granted tokens of the new currency.

Example of a hard fork is Ethereum (ETH) and Ethereum Classic (ETC).

In June 2016, the unfortunate event of a successful hacking of the Ethereum blockchain that resulted in the loss of about $50 million worth of investors funds caused there to be a meeting of stakeholders which consensus was to Fork. This fork was aimed at recovery of investors funds to their respective owners.

After the fork, a new network (blockchain) was formed. The old blockchain was renamed itself Ethereum class (ETC) while the new blockchain retained the name; Ethereum. After this hard fork, some investors remained in the old network while the others migrated to the new Network.

3.Explain in details what a Soft Fork is with examples (Can be of any blockchain).

Soft Fork:- This is otherwise known as backward compatible. Here, the new rules doesn't exclude the protocol rules that existed before the fork. This means that all the upgraded nodes are still capable of generation blocks and joining the blockchain.

Soft fork brings upgrade that complement the original blockchain. This occurs when almost all of the users agrees to the upgrade.

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Example of a soft fork is Taproot.

Taproot is a name given to a proposed Bitcoin fork that is stated to take effect by November 2021. This fork was first proposed by a Bitcoin top contributor and former blocktsreem CTO; Gregory Maxwell.

This fork was agreed on because, when implemented;

• It will add privacy to the features of Bitcoin.
• expanding on Bitcoins smart contract, flexibility.
• It will help reduce cost of transaction.
• It will facilitate quick separation of complex transactions from simple ones.

This fork will be the second soft fork of Bitcoin after segregated witness of 2017. The proposed numbers are BIP340, BIP341, BIP342.

Despite the fact that this is a soft fork, upgrade and miners have indicated interests for the update, all things been equal, all nodes (both upgraded and non Upgraded) should be compatible to the rules of Taproot. But no, all non Upgraded nodes will not be part of Taproot

4.What are the differences between Hard Forks and Soft Forks?

S/n	Hard Fork	Soft Fork
1.	Here, two currencies emerge.	Here, One currency is sustained as users accepts the upgrade.
2.	They are backwards incompatible	This is backwards compatible
3.	Here, nodes that wants to join the new protocol need upgrade to enable them operate on the new chain.	Here, no further upgrade is required
4.	Hard Fork has higher security than soft fork. Here, if there is an addition of new rules, nodes will stop performing.	Here, old nodes might accept data that are invalid without the user noticing

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 hard fork. It is an altcoin forked out of Bitcoin in the year 2017. This fork happens as a result of the desire some stakeholders had to create a currency that will accommodate larger block size than Bitcoin. This will help facilitate more transactions in a single block. Despite the fact that Bitcoin cash have remained a good coin overtime, it had to undergo her own fork which produced Bitcoin cash ABC and Bitcoin cash SV (Satoshi Version)

Bitcoin share alot in common with Bitcoin cash, they may include;

• They share the same consensus mechanism.
• They share the same Genesis block because Bitcoin cash was forked out of Bitcoin.
• Their supply is both capped at 21 million.

Since a fork is a form of upgrade, below are a few modifications on Bitcoin cash;

• Speed:- Bitcoin cash processes transaction faster than Bitcoin.
• Higher Quality:- Because it takes Bitcoin cash lesser time to process one transaction, can process more transactions than Bitcoin.
• Cheaper:- The transaction charge on Bitcoin cash is cheaper than Bitcoin.

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Segregated Witnesses (SegWit):- This is a soft fork whose need arose because some stakeholders saw reasons to control the rate at which blocks were formed. These blocks occupied lots of spaces and also slows down the processing speed of the blockchain. Since majority was all needed for the soft fork, they went ahead, but some of the community members did not like this idea, they therefore forked which produced Bitcoin cash.

Things to note about SegWit are;

• This is a soft fork.
• It was the first of it's kind.
• It happened in 2017.
• It was after it that Bitcoin cash was conceived.
• It have always remind in top best 15 coins since creation.

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6.Write on the Steem and Hive Hard fork and show similarities in their Genesis Blocks(Provide screenshots).

Steem Hard Fork:- When Justin Sun agreed on a merger with Tron (TRN) there was disagreements amongst the key community members. Some of them did not want the integration of Tron to steem to form the new steem. Resultantly, some witnesses, block chain validators and stakeholders formed a group and forked the steem blockchain creating another another currency known as Hive out of the steem ecosystem.

A splinter blockchain was also performed weeks later which duplicated all tokens of existing steemit users as at the time of the fork. This means that all users of steemit as at the time of the fork automatically own a Hive account with the exact amount of Tokens they had in the wallet also duplicated therein in the new currency.

Similarities the Steemit and Hive genesis blocks.

1. Transaction ID:- Because the two Blockchains share same genesis blockchain, the transaction ID of the transaction in both blocks are the same.
2. Date:- The two blocks Share same date, the slight difference in date is because of time zone because the two were forked in different countries.
3. Witness:- as shown in screenshot above, the witness for the two genesis blocks is same; Initminer.

CONCLUSION

Because blockchain is a decentralized system and as such, no single individual enjoy Monopoly in decision Making.

It is understandable that people are different and the way they react to situations also vary. Just like in a democratic settings, everyone is entitled to his/her opinion, reasons there is room for conflicting opinions which results to hard fork. But when the opinions of the miners are almost same it results to soft fork

Fork is a good development. Whichever result we get(hard or soft) it is for the good of all.