What is a hard fork explained in a simple way
A hard fork is the opposite of a soft fork which I will explain in my next post. a hard fork is due to nodes that have not updated their software with the new consensus rule, this leads to nodes no longer communicating with each other and no longer sharable.
A hard fork forces the nodes with the old software to be updated as the new software modifies the protocol so that the nodes with the new software accept the transactions creating a new format which entails that the outdated nodes reject the transaction.
With the new protocol, transactions can include previously invalid formats or change their way of sharing data in a way that would be incompatible with the previous software. Let's give an example if the address structure is coded as ABC and with the update now they will only be XYZ version The previous one ran into a wall where it stopped following the new consensus.
However, as I explained in my previous post if some nodes are still operational with an outdated version of the software after a hard fork leads to a split in the blockchain. Then there would be two block chains that share the same root but are not compatible with each other.
After the block chain is divided in two, the decision will pass to the miners if they want to update or stay with the previous version to determine if both networks will be able to continue working in parallel or the old version would simply stop working due to lack of power. of mining. But sometimes miners can spend some time using the new version and the old version to work out which version is more profitable and which offers better performance.
If it is a network that works with (PoS) as a consensus mechanism, it would speak of mining nodes, but if the network worked with (PoW) it would speak of validator nodes. However, the logic behind the fork would work similarly in both cases.