Steemit Crypto Academy Contest / S4W4 - Blockchain Forks
Welcome to week 4 of this season's crypto academy contest, this week we would be discussing on Forks; what do they mean and what are their functions.
Let's dive in:
Using your own terms to define what is a fork in general?
A fork can be said to be a change to a blockchain's underlying protocol or a change in the basic set of rules powering a blockchain, it can be carried out as a result of a need for an upgrade of a set of instructions on the blockchain.
When this happens, the chain splits — producing a second blockchain that shares all of its history with the original, but is headed off in a new direction.
Forks can happen as a results of a blockchain needing upgrades, addressing security risks on a blockchain also as a result of certain disagreements within the community about a cryptocurrency's direction.
Using any blockchain example, explain what a Hard Fork is.
A Hard fork is a radical change in the code of a crypto blockchain that isn't compatible with previous blocks, and as a result there's a permanent divergence from the previous version of the blockchain, with new tokens having to be mined.
Hard fork is when nodes of the newest version of a blockchain no longer accepts the older version(s) of the blockchain; which creates a permanent divergence from the previous version of the blockchain.
Ethereum had a hard fork in 2016 which brought about Ethereum classic.
This was as a result of the DAO hack which happened in 2016 where an insecure DAO contract was drained of over 3.6 million ETH, a fork was created that moved funds from the faulty contract to a new wallet with only one function: withdraw, this enabled those affected get their funds back.
Some miners where not in agreement with this and pulled out to develop their own hard fork of ethereum which is now known as ethereum classic.
Ethereum classic is a hard fork of ethereum's original code base which resulted with it's pulling away from Ethereum completely having it's own token and community.
Using any blockchain example, explain what a Soft Fork is.
A soft fork is a change to a software protocol whereby only previously valid transaction blocks are made invalid. A soft fork only affects previous blocks and as such is backwards-compatible, because old nodes will recognize the new blocks as valid, and isn't any need to generate new tokens.
A very good example of a soft fork is the Bitcoin soft fork.
The Bitcoin Blockchain Soft Fork- SegWit (Segregated Witness) is a soft fork that happened on the Bitcoin blockchain after the hard fork that brought the creation of a new chain for Bitcoin Cash.
SegWit is a soft fork in the sense that the upgrade is optional for the nodes on the network, anyone can upgrade or not, and it doesn't affect their participation in the network.
What are the differences between Hard Forks and Soft Forks?
| Hard Forks | Soft Forks |
|---|---|
| A hard fork is a radical change that can make previous blocks invalid | Soft fork does not affect previous transactions. |
| It is not backward compatible | it is backward compatible |
| Hard fork leads to a permanent chain separation | It doesn't lead to a permanent chain separation |
| New tokens are generates | New tokens are not generated. |
Explain the Steem and Hive Hard fork by showing the similarities/differences in their Genesis blocks.
The steem and Hive hard fork officially happened on the 20th of March 2020, and was as a result of the conflict between Justin sun founder of Tron foundation and the steemit community. The hard fork was successful and the newly generated hive tokens were airdropped to steem holders in the ratio 1:1
A genesis block can be said to be the first block mined at the launch of a blockchain protocol.
The similarities between steem and Hive in their genesis block is that they are both mined on the same day, at the same time, both having 0 transaction, by the same miner and signature, and same origin hash.
Their new blocks after the hard fork changes, and each chain maintains it's own transaction data. The only difference in the Genesis block is the block reward which is 1.000000 VESTS for Steem and 0.001 HP for Hive but that doesn't hold much significance. The genesis block is similar for both blockchains even after the hard fork.
Conclusion
Forks are used to improve on the functionalities of a blockchain protocol, just like Mobile apps perform various upgrades from time to time likewise existing blockchain protocol might need to be upgraded which leads to a fork. They can either be drastic which are hard forks or just little upgrades which are soft forks.
Your entry is very educative. I have learned what a hard fork and soft fork. Hard fork is created when there is need for split and can lead to creation of new and different Blockchains. While soft fork can be created to change a software protocol.
And steem and hive took part in a hard fork. I appreciate your entry. Thanks a lot and success to your entry.
You may need to always apply markdown styles to align your write up and make it more appealing.
Thanks a lot for your review ma..
Pls, which markdown styling am I missing out...
I would never forget my early days on this platform during CryptoAcademy, we had a crash lesson on fork.
That exposed me to this concept, I had to go In-depth studying what this concept was all about.
Reading from you again refreshed my memory about all I found out then. You have really presented well.
lest I forget, you might just need to justify subsequent post. Trust me, you would love the output.
Gracias ♥️
When a fork occurs, the blockchain chain is separated and a new blockchain chain is formed and still retains the changes from the beginning. Not only in blockchain, there are forks, in applications and browsers on PCs and smartphones there are forks, because applications and browsers need updating.
I also share about blockchain Fork, if you have time please take a look and I'm very happy.
Yes, with a hard fork both the old and new chains got separated and work apart but a soft fork change doesn't lead to any new chain or cause any separation, you have done a great job explaining the topic, thank you for sharing.
Your article is very much educative and explanatory, as I given the opportunity to learn about what a hard fork and soft fork is all about and their differences. If you had asked me before now, I would a thought you are talking about a cutlery or a garden tool.
As good as your work is, you can make it better by applying the justification markdown style to align your work to make it neat and appealing and maybe some photos to illustrate your thoughts.
Overall, your explanations were on point, for that I wish you good luck my friend..
That's correct . New blockchain sonformed as a result of hardfork issues 1:1 ratio of new tokens to the old chain token holders as well.
Steemit community presumed tron integration as a hostile takeover and intererference in decentralised working .
Good luck
I am happy to see your article again. In crypto academy I know this is very hard to participate, and we have to go deeper in the task for the good context. But you did well job, while you are not so old on platform. Because many of newcomers can't afford good participations posts, as you have done.
There are many unique features of the blockchain technology that could be improved time by time when new changes are made in them. These changings are actually known as Blockchain Forks and the phenomenon is known as Blockchain Forking.
Yes, this is exactly in the case of the Soft Forking. Soft forks are just like the updates of a mobile phone or a game, there is no separation of operating system if the users upgrade them or not. The exactly same is the case in the Blockchain Soft Forks.
Thank you very much for sharing your informative post with us and I wish you very good the for the contest.
You wrote well well boss but you need to learn how to apply basic markdowns to make your post automatically look good and attractive to the eyes. I would advise you to go through achievement 4 in the newcomers community. Mean while you wrote awesomely.
Thank you very much for sharing, please you can check my own entry here
wishing you success