Fork and its types
Forth is something that occur at blockchain as there is any alternation or change in the rules and protocol at a particular blockchain. As a result of any alternation or change ,new version of blockchain or a branch maybe created.
If I talk about types of fork then there are two types;
- Soft fork
- Hard fork
First of all I would like to discuss about hard fork and then I would like to discuss about soft fork by explaining examples of both of them.
Hard fork
If there are changes to a protocol which are not backward-compatible then a fork is created in this way which is called hard fork. In this way the nodes that are not upgrading according to the new rules would be at a chain that would be separate which would results in split in blockchain. You can also say that hard fork create a new blockchain that is not similar or independent to original one.
Hard fork example
Creation of Bitcoin cash from the original Bitcoin blockchain is an example of hard fork. Few years ago when there was 2017 then there was group of miners and different developers who suggested that there should be increased in the block size limit so that there could be enhancement in number of transactions. That was a suggestion which was not acceptable by most of the community and as a result hard fork created. Some people that were in the support of this suggestion create a separate Blockchain which was Bitcoin crash but other people that was not in favor of that suggestion continued their use of original Bitcoin blockchain.
Soft fork
If there are changes to a protocol which are backward-compatible then a fork is created in this way which is called soft fork.Soft fork is the indication that nodes which are not upgrade according to new rules can also participate still in the network.
Soft fork example
SegWit was introduced at Bitcoin for solving the issues that are related to scalability and in this there is a separation of signature data and transaction data which in return leads to processing more transactions in each block without changing the block size limit. There are some notes that didn't upgrade to support segregated witness in Bitcoin but still they can participate in Bitcoin network.
I am going to discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages of both type of forks in tabular form so hope you would understand it very well.
Advantages
| Soft forks | Hard forks |
|---|---|
| Soft fork is backward compatible | Hard fork is that which permits for more significant alternations to a protocol |
| Soft fork is very easy in its implementation and it is also very rapid regarding its adoption by the community | Some of the disagreements and fundamental problems can be addressed by hard forks. |
Now I am discussing some of the challenges and disadvantages as a result of soft fork and hard for so hopefully it would be understandable by you guys.
Disadvantages
| Soft fork | Hard fork |
|---|---|
| Change or alternation that have been made by soft fork is in limitation | Due to splitting in blockchain hard for leads to two separate chains |
| It could leads to a state of confusion when some of the new users don't understand the change that have been made recently or don't aware about the change | There is a need to majority of the participants to adopt the new rules or alternations that have been made so that the blockchain would be successful. |
Fork is one of the most interesting event at the blockchain and it can happens into two forms as I have explained it separately about soft fork and hard fork as well as I have also explained by keeping in mind some of the examples of the past and I used bitcoin blockchain for this and secondly I tried my best to explain the advantages and disadvantages that we obtained from both of the types of fork so that was all about the basics of fork.
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