Crypto Academy // Season 3 // Week 4 - Homework Post for professor [@awesononso] Blockchain Forks by @vibrant6689
Q(1)WHAT IS FORK?(in your own words)
It is a routine in Unix which is used in generating duplicate for a specific procedure by developing particular process by creating double simultaneous for carrying out different processes of a program.
NOTE The double processes makes use of multiple tasking, the processes are typically called the "parent" and "child" processes. They use multitasking policy to distribute resources in the system.
The Genesis of cryptocurrency is traceable to Bitcoin as the ancestor and it was structured to serve as a worthy alternative to physical currency in a decentralized format.
As time goes on, cryptos started surfacing so that we presently have enormous diverse digital cryptocurrencies, example, Ripple and Monero.
Questions would be like, how? Did they just appear into this earth like fallen stars?
The answer is NO
But many of them came to reality because of the presence of fork.
Having established that, a fork can simply be defined as a change that takes place within the blockchain policy which is useful for the software in making decisions as to whether transaction made is invalid or valid.
The implementation simply points that virtually all the divergence that takes place in blockchain would most likely be a fork.
WHEN DO FORKS OCCUR?
The appearance of forks follows by a conclusion made by users or developers when the need to effect a change in any crucial aspect of cryptocurrency.
It could be as a result of major hack, a very good example is what that happened to ethereum, or it could also be as a result of a foundational dispute within the organization. Example is Bitcoin and Bitcoin cash.
Q(2) EXPLAIN IN DETAIL WHAT A HARD FORK IS WITH EXAMPLES(can be of any blockchain)
This is referred to as a fundamental development in the procedure of a blockchain network.
It divides 1 cryptocurrency into two which would prompt the confirmation of transactions which were resently done but was not confirmed, it also confirms the block itself or conversely.
This as a result would demand that every developers must be acquainted with the latest software version of the protocol.
In other words, an overhaul change in rules which is accompanied by so many effects on the overall blockchain's network,..."HARDFORK".
Then, what the resultant effect would be is, the confirmed or unconfirmed blocks which is generated using the new rule would appear as unconfirmed or confirmed when you compare them to the old rules. This is because, most nodes in the system are still outdated and cannot function in total agreement with the old rules, thus, upgrading their softwares becomes pertinent.
Hence, part separation is observed after the new rule have been added. One will continue with the old blockchain while the other one would go with the new one.
You already know we have different users with different interest and likes, thus, a lifetime split would be created if a set of these users adopt the new software while the rest go for the old software.
However, in some cases many nodes making use the new software might chose to reverse back to the old one.
ref
Q(3) EXPLAIN IN DETAIL WHAT IS SOFT FORK?
This can be said to be an upgraded software version which still works in agreement or compatibility with the older ones.
What this implies is that even if the users didn't update to the upgraded software, it would still not affect them, hence, they can still take part in effective verification and validation of transactions.
However, note that the effective participation of those users who haven't upgraded would be affected. In a situation where the new policy have highlighted that size of the block nerds to change to 800 kilobytes instead of the present 1000 kilobytes (1MB).
Those users who haven't upgraded to the new version would still be seeing that the new transactions are valid.
Then, where the major issue lies is when the miners that haven't upgraded attempts to mine the new blocks, the network will frustrate their efforts.
Thus, softforks represents a stepwise updating machinery since users that haven't updated are motivated to update so that the risk of poor performance would be minimal.
Q(4) WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN A HARD FORK AND SOFT FORK?
| Hard fork | Soft fork |
|---|---|
| The arrival of new rule in hardfork silences the existence of the old nodes | Both the old and new are still present and in agreement |
| Only the new rule is useful | the old nodes accepts informations that are not recognized by the new one |
| In splitting process, two blockchains are created | still remains one |
| Has higher rate of privacy | minimal in comparison |
| Virtually all developers and users prefers it | only few |
Get additional differences between hard and soft fork from the image above
Q(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
BITCOIN CASH
This is the outcome of the hard fork of Bitcoin which took place in August 2017.
The purpose of creating bitcoin cash was to create a bigger space that would be suitable for larger blocks, inorder to permit one block to run additional transactions.
Even though some differences still exist, But the bitcoin and bitcoin cash still have something in common, like, both operates with same agreement mechanism and had ranked their inflow at twenty one million.
In the month of November, 2018, cryptocurrency had another fork and a division into Bitcoin cash SV and Bitcoin cash ABC
sreenshot from bitcoin cash explorer
SEGREGATED WITNESSES
This is a motion made with regards to BTC which is structured to assist in increasing the size of the block thereby eliminating limitations on a blockchain.
Segregated Witnesses increases the limit of the block size by attracting a pattern information Bitcoin transactions.
Note
- SegWit stands for separate or segregate
- Witnesses, these are the signatures of the transaction.
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NOTE
- BITCOIN CASH is a hard fork of bitcoin while
- SEGREGATION WITNESSES, is the softfork
(6) WRITE ON THE STEEM AND HIVE HARD FORK AND SHOW SIMILARITIES IN THEIR GENESIS BLOCK(provide screenshots)
STEEM HARD FORK
The ideal of hard forking steem became an issue of concern by the community when Justin Sun had became in charge of steem.
They weren't in support of the system being centralized. A novel platform came in to play to enable them stop their funds from regulation.
Division was witnessed on March 20th, this had already instigated inrush of oker and indignation.
When hardfork was introduced, it was necessary to copy the blockchain so that everything that is announced on Steem including balance in the wallet would display on the Hive.
Those whose their steem account got blocked were gifted free hive tokens.
HIVE HARD FORK
The concept of hard fork is just like, for instance, citizens of a country who have been living together for a very long time, suddenly, one thing lead to another, disagreement or conflict ensued.
A fragment of that same country now decides and say, okay oo, we don't want to leave with you any longer, we want to go, become independent in our own separate country, thus a total splitting is observed and each goes their separate parts.
However, In this context, not as if the existing currency would be divided into two, but it would rather lead to the creation of a new currency overnight.
Hence, HIVE is the resultant currency when the steem was hard forked.
About 345000000 tokens was in circulation during the hard forking period and this simply implies that also 345000000 is currently in existence after the hardfork.
Steem Genesis block
Follow this link to explore steemblock
https://steemworld.org/
For HIVE Genesis block
Follow this link to explore hive block https://hiveblocks.com/
A close look into the screenshots above shows that the both shares similarities in the vest numbers, mining date and time.
Regards to professor
@awesononso