When a new person hears the fork word, he feels like it is about a utensil, but in crypto terms, it is not; it is about the code. Fork is all about changing things in blockchain protocol, and there are two main flavours, which we have also mentioned in the title: soft forks and hard forks. We hive users know hard forks very well because we have seen multiple hard forks in the hive blockchain and steem, and these two are quite different than each other, but they update crypto software.
Let me break it down for you
What is a Fork, Anyway?
As you know, blockchain is maintained by nodes because it is a distributed ledger. Do you know? The rules that these computers (nodes) follow are defined and made by blockchain protocol. Now, this is a decentralized ecosystem, so how can a single entity change the rules and update it? So, in this case, developers decide to change it, and then the fork happens. Here, the best example to understand it is software updates in mobile and you know it very well.
Soft Fork: The Gentle Update
A soft fork is not going to change everything; it just makes new changes, and the old ones will also remain in the blockchain. So this is called a soft fork. To improve security and efficiency, soft forks happen, and we have seen it many times in the crypto economy. Let's say a new law is passed in which all cars must now drive at 50 mph instead of 80 mph, but here the cars that follow the 80 mph rules can still drive, so here a new rule is introduced, but also there is no change in the old one.
Hard Fork: The Big Split
I think I don't need to give more information regarding this topic because hive users have already seen multiple hard forks on hive/steem blockchain. Once the new rules are applied, the older ones are not applicable. You can say it is a complete change. Sometimes, disagreement leads to a split in the chain like the hive and steem blockchain separation.
Let's understand from the car driving example so new rule introduced in which we have to drive right side instead of left so if you were driving left side now you have to change it to right side driving.
Final Thoughts
You know that both soft fork and hard fork are essential for blockchain, and they are playing a vital role in blockchain evolution. Soft forks offer backward-compatible and subtle updates, but hard forks are totally different, and it can lead to dramatic and big changes, controversy, and new cryptocurrencies too.
So both are important for making changes in the blockchain, and we have already experienced multiple hardforks, so we know that. What is your opinion regarding this information? Let me know in the comments, and also share this post on social media like x, Reddit, Instagram, Medium, and wherever you want. I hope you will revisit my posts, so please follow and contribute by upvoting this.
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