Understanding Hard Forks
Hi Plebs,
A hard fork is a significant event that can permanently alter the underlying timechain network. It means making a change to the protocol of a cryptocurrency that makes previously invalid blocks or transactions valid, or vice versa.
Fundamentally, a hard fork is a protocol change that is not backwards-compatible. This means that older client versions would not recognise or validate blocks created by the updated software, resulting in the creation of a separate, incompatible timechain.
Hard forks can occur for various reasons, such as fixing critical bugs, improving network functionality, or implementing new features. When a hard fork happens, users of the cryptocurrency must upgrade their software to the new version in order to continue participating in the network.
It is important to distinguish hard forks from soft forks. A soft fork is a backward-compatible change, where older clients can still recognise and validate the new blocks. In contrast, a hardfork creates a permanent divergence in the timechain, potentially leading to the creation of a new, separate cryptocurrency.
The Bitcoin network has experienced a few accidental hard forks in its history. In 2013, a hardfork occurred due to a BerkeleyDB issue, leading to a temporary chain split. In 2018, Bitcoin Core version 0.15 accidentally hard forked, but this was quickly addressed with a soft fork deployment in version 0.16.3.
Additionally, in August 2019, a proposal was made to implement a hard fork to "bury" the activation of Segregated Witness (SegWit) and the Check Sequence Verify (CSV) upgrade within the Bitcoin protocol.
One of the most notable hard forks in the space was the creation of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) in August 2017. This was the result of a disagreement within the Bitcoin community over the block size limit. A group of developers and miners wanted to increase the block size from 1MB to 8MB, but this proposal was not accepted by the broader Bitcoin community.
Consequently, the supporters of the block size increase decided to create a separate network - Bitcoin Cash - that would implement the larger 8MB block size. This resulted in a permanent split of the Bitcoin timechain, with Bitcoin Cash adopting the increased block size, while Bitcoin (BTC) maintained the 1MB block size limit.
The Bitcoin Cash hard fork was a controversial event, as it created two competing versions of Bitcoin. Users who held Bitcoin (BTC) at the time of the fork automatically received an equivalent amount of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) in their wallets.
Since the hard fork, Bitcoin Cash has continued to operate as a separate cryptocurrency network, with its own development roadmap, ecosystem, and community. The two cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH), have diverged in their technical approaches, use cases, and market valuations over the years.
Cheers, and onwards with Bitcoin
