What is a HardFork?
The hard fork it self is related with blockchain technology.It is a radical change in the network protocol. It makes the formerly blocks and transactions valid or inversely. A hard fork requires that all users and node to update to the last version out.
Why the forks happen?
- A raising number of transactions affecting processing speed, fees and waiting times.
- Malicious attacks of the blockchain targeting weaknesses found in the cryptographic code. This allow for theft of crypto, or sabotage of the network’s smooth running.
- Pre-designed improvements which are present in the design of the cryptocurrency.
- Innovations that may threaten the nature of the cryptocurrency, including security of the network. For example, this technology is still not ready for quantum computers and what they may do to cryptocurrency or other digital assets’ security.
Why do we need to update the protocol?
- To improve the security;
- To add new functionalities;
- To reverse transactions;
Soft Fork vs Hard Fork
In resume the soft fork are created new protocol, but it has a backward compatibility.
So in the soft fork we can still use the previous protocol and we can use one of the 2(old or the new protocol) ,but in the hard fork we can't access the older protocol.
Some hard fork cases
The most well known case is the bitcoin cash. When the hard fork bitcoin cash was consolidated it implemented higher transaction speed and less decentralized also the coins that you had in bitcoin you received the same amount in bitcoin cash.
Another case of hardfork is the DAO a fork from Ethereum.
