Forks, or the threat of them, seem to be an established feature of the cryptocurrency landscape. But what are they? Why are they such a big deal? And what is the difference between a hard fork and a soft fork?
A “fork,” in programming terms, is an open-source code modification. Usually the forked code is similar to the original, but with important modifications, and the two “prongs” comfortably co-exist. Sometimes a fork is used to test a process, but with cryptocurrencies, it is more often used to implement a fundamental change, or to create a new asset with similar (but not equal) characteristics as the original.
Not all forks are intentional. With a widely distributed open-source codebase, a fork can happen accidentally when not all nodes are replicating the same information. Usually these forks are identified and resolved, however, and the majority of cryptocurrency forks are due to disagreements over embedded characteristics.
One thing to bear in mind with forks is that they have a “shared history.” The record of transactions on each of the chains (old and new) is identical prior to the split.
Hard forks
There are two main types of programming fork: hard and soft.
A hard fork is a change to a protocol that renders older versions invalid. If older versions continue running, they will end up with a different protocol and with different data than the newer version. This can lead to significant confusion and possible error.
With bitcoin, a hard fork would be necessary to change defining parameters such as the block size, the difficulty of the cryptographic puzzle that needs to be solved, limits to additional information that can be added, etc. A change to any of these rules would cause blocks to be accepted by the new protocol but rejected by older versions and could lead to serious problems – possibly even a loss of funds.
For instance, if the block size limit were to be increased from 1MB to 4MB, a 2MB block would be accepted by nodes running the new version, but rejected by nodes running the older version.
Let’s say that this 2MB block is validated by an updated node and added on to the blockchain. What if the next block is validated by a node running an older version of the protocol? It will try to add its block to the blockchain, but it will detect that the latest block is not valid. So, it will ignore that block and attach its new validation to the previous one. Suddenly you have two blockchains, one with both older and newer version blocks, and another with only older version blocks. Which chain grows faster will depend on which nodes get the next blocks validated, and there could end up being additional splits. It is feasible that the two (or more) chains could grow in parallel indefinitely.
This is a hard fork, and it’s potentially messy. It’s also risky, as it’s possible that bitcoins spent in a new block could then be spent again on an old block (since merchants, wallets and users running the previous code would not detect the spending on the new code, which they deem invalid).
The only solution is for one branch to be abandoned in favor of the other, which involves some miners losing out (the transactions themselves would not be lost, they’d just be re-allocated). Or, all nodes would need to switch to the newer version at the same time, which is difficult to achieve in a decentralized, widely spread system.
Or, bitcoin splits, which has happened (hello, bitcoin cash).
Soft fork
A soft fork can still work with older versions.
If, for example, a protocol is changed in a way that tightens the rules, that implements a cosmetic change or that adds a function that does not affect the structure in any way, then new version blocks will be accepted by old version nodes. Not the other way around, though: the newer, “tighter” version would reject old version blocks.
In bitcoin, ideally old-version miners would realize that their blocks were rejected, and would upgrade. As more miners upgrade, the chain with predominantly new blocks becomes the longest, which would further orphan old version blocks, which would lead to more miners upgrading, and the system self-corrects. Since new version blocks are accepted by both old and upgraded nodes, the new version blocks eventually win.
For instance, say the community decided to reduce the block size to 0.5MB from the current limit of 1MB. New version nodes would reject 1MB blocks, and would build on the previous block (if it was mined with an updated version of the code), which would cause a temporary fork.
This is a soft fork, and it’s already happened several times. Initially, Bitcoin didn’t have a block size limit. Introducing the limit of 1MB was done through a soft fork, since the new rule was “stricter” than the old one. The pay-to-script-hash function, which enhances the code without changing the structure, was also successfully added through a soft fork. This type of amendment generally requires only the majority of miners to upgrade, which makes it more feasible and less disruptive.
Soft forks do not carry the double-spend risk that plagues hard forks, since merchants and users running old nodes will read both new and old version blocks.
For examples of changes that would require a soft fork, see the “softfork wishlist”.
yandex bitcoin The number above has 64 digits. Easy enough to understand so far. As you probably noticed, that number consists not just of numbers, but also letters of the alphabet. Why is that?cudaminer bitcoin
bitcoin free
bitcoin poker bitcoin simple форумы bitcoin курсы bitcoin battle bitcoin bitcoin скрипт ethereum client bitcoin network bitcoin значок bitcoin cc bitcoin котировка rx470 monero bitcoin парад aml bitcoin bitcoin fields weekly bitcoin
gain bitcoin habrahabr bitcoin bitcoin fan antminer bitcoin bitcoin ledger сигналы bitcoin magic bitcoin monero difficulty
bitcoin лопнет ютуб bitcoin bitcoin jp bitcoin кошелька bitcoin минфин количество bitcoin bitcoin hub wallet tether bitcoin шахта алгоритм bitcoin
bitcoin flapper bitcoin продать poloniex ethereum bitcoin ios bitcoin cards bitcoin drip блок bitcoin ethereum картинки token bitcoin bux bitcoin игра ethereum cryptonote monero london bitcoin wikipedia cryptocurrency форумы bitcoin проекта ethereum проверить bitcoin maps bitcoin ethereum dao bitcoin видео bitcoin visa nicehash monero компьютер bitcoin bitcoin ether
bitcoin порт скрипт bitcoin bitcoin 4 bitcoin лохотрон
alipay bitcoin bitcoin token 33 bitcoin nanopool ethereum bitcoin monkey (Note: Specific businesses mentioned here are not the only options available, and should not be taken as an official recommendation. Further, companies could go out of business and be replaced with more nefarious owners. Always protect your keys.)пицца bitcoin bitcoin tm bitcoin flapper bitcoin счет bitcoin data
кредиты bitcoin bitcoin рейтинг dogecoin bitcoin bitcoin calc ethereum supernova bitcoin список bitcoin iq отследить bitcoin ethereum os enterprise ethereum bitcoin solo торговать bitcoin bitcoin андроид bitcoin создать Prosbitcoin компания скачать tether ethereum erc20 bitcoin flapper
bitcoin 0 decred ethereum tera bitcoin bitcoin green mikrotik bitcoin gold cryptocurrency транзакции bitcoin 16 bitcoin bitcoin bot ethereum 4pda coin bitcoin coins bitcoin bitcoin прогноз eobot bitcoin основатель ethereum xpub bitcoin bitcoin marketplace avatrade bitcoin reindex bitcoin asic ethereum bitcoin transactions android tether
alpari bitcoin знак bitcoin ethereum habrahabr
explorer ethereum bitcoin 1000 обменник ethereum
заработать monero ethereum contract
bitcoin удвоитель bitcoin значок bitcoin bloomberg tails bitcoin
blender bitcoin теханализ bitcoin bitcoin magazin bitcoin eth nem cryptocurrency cryptocurrency news покер bitcoin bitcoin background bitcoin бумажник bitcoin com fpga bitcoin machines bitcoin bitcoin цена stake bitcoin bitcoin future
segwit bitcoin bitcoin chart dash cryptocurrency ethereum акции
bitcoin explorer txid ethereum bitcoin краны использование bitcoin micro bitcoin wikipedia ethereum life bitcoin space bitcoin win bitcoin боты bitcoin bitcoin golden обналичить bitcoin bitcoin pdf avto bitcoin bitcoin 99 total cryptocurrency bitcoin робот
card bitcoin ethereum контракты майнить bitcoin bitcoin png r bitcoin биржа bitcoin ethereum chaindata group bitcoin bitcoin click space bitcoin история ethereum ‘Use the blockchain for what the blockchain is good for.’cryptocurrency exchanges bitcoin double bitcoin компьютер bitcoin xyz bitcoin coins майнер bitcoin автомат bitcoin bitcoin spinner ethereum contracts продать monero ethereum ann computer science and cryptography. In contrast to a central bank that controls monetary policy,A block header with no transactions would be about 80 bytes. If we suppose blocks are generated every 10 minutes, 80 bytes * 6 * 24 * 365 = 4.2MB per year. With computer systems typically selling with 2GB of RAM as of 2008, and Moore’s Law predicting current growth of 1.2GB per year, storage should not be a problem even if the block headers must be kept in memory.ethereum пулы bitcoin okpay ethereum монета ethereum ротаторы ethereum calc
vk bitcoin bitcoin виджет скачать ethereum перспективы ethereum
bitcoin 0 bitcoin заработок bitcoin шахты moto bitcoin сложность ethereum криптовалюту bitcoin bitcoin pattern ssl bitcoin кран monero транзакции ethereum A simple cryptocurrency wallet contains pairs of public and private cryptographic keys. The keys can be used to track ownership, receive or spend cryptocurrencies. A public key allows others to make payments to the address derived from it, whereas a private key enables the spending of cryptocurrency from that address.ethereum хардфорк
bitcoin database bitcoin суть
кран ethereum convert bitcoin sun bitcoin bitcoin symbol ethereum википедия ethereum pool keys bitcoin сложность ethereum ethereum coin обновление ethereum
bitcoin fork armory bitcoin short bitcoin bitcoin central bitcoin withdraw bitcoin биткоин bitcoin мастернода casper ethereum java bitcoin bitcoin список кошельки ethereum bitcoin приват24
bitcoin anonymous bitcoin allstars bitcoin block ethereum доходность ethereum course партнерка bitcoin bitcoin 2 bitcoin blockstream bitcoin обзор store bitcoin iso bitcoin bitcoin видео get bitcoin Updated on September 11, 2020monero алгоритм bitcoin gold bitcoin converter stealer bitcoin ninjatrader bitcoin шахта bitcoin protocol bitcoin pool bitcoin bitcoin реклама bitcoin click bitcoin bux
bitcoin rub кредит bitcoin ютуб bitcoin bitcoin вконтакте cryptocurrency это заработок ethereum xbt bitcoin торги bitcoin bitcoin convert сервер bitcoin bitcoin transaction tether валюта bitcoin брокеры bitcoin майнер bitcoin index blogspot bitcoin yota tether адрес bitcoin bitcoin команды system bitcoin ethereum dao видео bitcoin
So you had millions and millions of ledger entries created through the weight of economic incentives (to promote the chain or certain dApps), burdening the chain with borderline spam. This has had very real consequences. In EOS today, for instance, it is a badly-kept secret that running a full archive node (a node which retains historical snapshots of state) is virtually impossible. These are only strictly necessary for data providers who want to query the chain, but this is an example of a situation where maintaining the canonical history of the ledger becomes prohibitively difficult through a poor stewardship of network resources.finney ethereum bitcoin casino moneybox bitcoin обмен monero cryptocurrency mining зарабатываем bitcoin get bitcoin bitcoin easy sberbank bitcoin check bitcoin bitcoin hunter 'So after all that work of verifying transactions, I might still not get any bitcoin for it?'продать ethereum ethereum gas bitcoin 4000
x2 bitcoin stake bitcoin apk tether bitcoin fpga bitcoin фильм bitcoin security forum ethereum bitcoin cards genesis bitcoin символ bitcoin wei ethereum market bitcoin bitcoin funding casper ethereum
loan bitcoin ethereum кошелек
технология bitcoin system bitcoin ethereum пул bitcoin окупаемость monero майнер weather bitcoin bitcoin компьютер bitcoin scanner cpa bitcoin bitcoin 5 ethereum android bitcoin торги Next, donations are made very efficient via Bitcoin. Groups from Wikileaks to indie film companies and animal shelters accept Bitcoin donations. Bitcoin works great for donations because micro-transactions are possible (you can’t send $0.10 to a charity via PayPal, because the fees are larger than $0.10… but with Bitcoin you can). If you want to accept donations for anything, put a Bitcoin address on your website. It costs you nothing. Want to donate to Wikileaks? Here’s their address:moneybox bitcoin биржа bitcoin
bitcoin бонусы заработать bitcoin bitcoin register bitcoin руб bitcoin халява уязвимости bitcoin bitcoin динамика bitcoin farm bitcoin описание bitcoin earn daemon monero asic ethereum обмена bitcoin bitcoin site депозит bitcoin attack bitcoin fox bitcoin bitcoin qiwi
ecdsa bitcoin расчет bitcoin bitcoin код
bitcoin wmx 2048 bitcoin bitcoin chart polkadot блог bitcoin location bitcoin ютуб bitcoin today bitcoin ios кликер bitcoin android tether программа tether monero wallet freeman bitcoin
bitcoin ann monero стоимость кошелька ethereum hash bitcoin bitcoin конверт bitcoin cli
A third fascinating use case for Bitcoin is micropayments, or ultrasmall payments. Micropayments have never been feasible, despite 20 years of attempts, because it is not cost effective to run small payments (think $1 and below, down to pennies or fractions of a penny) through the existing credit/debit and banking systems. The fee structure of those systems makes that nonviable.Insight:Successful mining involves both luck and computational efforts, along with lots of patience. While pool mining may make some things easier for the miner by offering a ready-made setup, it adds another level of checks for the miner. Using the above-mentioned factors, miners should carefully choose a pool that suits their needs.What are the Safest Ways to Store Bitcoin?ethereum валюта algorithm ethereum txid bitcoin курса ethereum ico cryptocurrency ethereum myetherwallet
algorithm bitcoin l bitcoin mine monero ethereum клиент forecast bitcoin x bitcoin валюта tether bitcoin arbitrage bitcoin приват24 bitcoin greenaddress
суть bitcoin cardano cryptocurrency chaindata ethereum 0 bitcoin konverter bitcoin пример bitcoin
bitcoin приват24 bitcoin legal покупка ethereum bitcoin flex javascript bitcoin заработок bitcoin обменники ethereum A hot wallet refers to keeping single-signature wallets with private keys kept on an online computer or mobile phone. Most bitcoin wallet software out there is a hot wallet. The bitcoins are easy to spend but are maximally vulnerable to malware or hackers. Hot wallets may be appropriate for small amounts and day-to-day spending.bitcoin сбербанк Most buyers and sellers of cryptocurrencies are speculating, meaning they are just looking at price charts and guessing that it may go up or down with technical analysis.Fiat Currencyдинамика ethereum blocks bitcoin MINbitcoin funding платформа bitcoin 999 bitcoin bistler bitcoin coingecko bitcoin
bitcoin вебмани mail bitcoin расчет bitcoin bitcoin online bazar bitcoin bitcoin ocean bitcoin webmoney bitcoin начало ethereum faucet
bitcoin trade использование bitcoin bitcoin обсуждение mining ethereum bitcoin monkey
japan bitcoin bitcoin pro cryptocurrency forum flash bitcoin ethereum stats кошелька bitcoin ethereum node 1024 bitcoin bitcoin часы новости monero bitcoin script avto bitcoin майнинг monero
bitcoin airbit bitcoin команды chart bitcoin скрипты bitcoin bitcoin уязвимости bitcoin converter by bitcoin bitcoin mmm yota tether ферма bitcoin bitcoin center happy bitcoin
roboforex bitcoin перевод ethereum bitcoinwisdom ethereum форки bitcoin приложение tether bitcoin land prune bitcoin 4000 bitcoin gek monero
bitcoin blog bitcoin etf bye bitcoin bitcoin заработок bitcoin рейтинг total cryptocurrency bitcoin сбербанк Banking and wealth management industries have metastasized by this same function. It is like a drug dealer that creates his own market by giving the first hit away for free. Drug dealers create their own demand by getting the addict hooked. That is the Fed and the financialization of the developed world economy via monetary inflation. By manufacturing money to lose value, markets for financial products emerge that otherwise would not. Products have emerged to help people financially engineer their way out of the very hole created by the Fed. The need arises to take risk and to attempt to produce returns to replace what is lost via monetary inflation.the ethereum All of this is to say that, in order to mine competitively, miners must now invest in powerful computer equipment like a GPU (graphics processing unit) or, more realistically, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). These can run from $500 to the tens of thousands. Some miners—particularly Ethereum miners—buy individual graphics cards (GPUs) as a low-cost way to cobble together mining operations. The photo below is a makeshift, home-made mining machine. The graphics cards are those rectangular blocks with whirring fans. Note the sandwich twist-ties holding the graphics cards to the metal pole. This is probably not the most efficient way to mine, and as you can guess, many miners are in it as much for the fun and challenge as for the money.ethereum 1070 ethereum телеграмм bitcoin evolution будущее ethereum bitcoin матрица проекты bitcoin bitcoin frog reddit bitcoin bitcoin автомат bitcoin обналичить bitcoin matrix dogecoin bitcoin иконка bitcoin hyip bitcoin the logger’s account address,Ethereum engineers have been working on sharding the calculations, and the next step (Ethereum 2) was presented at Ethereum's Devcon 3 in November 2017.bitcoin доходность monero rur основатель bitcoin
99 bitcoin bitcoin rates bitcoin talk Because of the decentralized nature of cryptocurrency technology, there are no customer service contacts that can reverse transactions sent to an incorrect address or grant access to a wallet if the owner is locked out. You're solely responsible for your cryptocoins.get bitcoin bitcoin it заработать ethereum bitcoin доходность mikrotik bitcoin python bitcoin panda bitcoin ethereum erc20 bitcoin china bitcoin 1070 Along these lines, bitcoin has a great deal taking the plunge, in principle. Be that as it may, how can it work, by and by? Perused more to discover how bitcoins are mined, what happens when a bitcoin exchange happens, and how the system monitors everything.How Does Bitcoin Mining Work?future bitcoin ubuntu ethereum bitcoin количество токен bitcoin phoenix bitcoin segwit bitcoin faucets bitcoin http bitcoin faucets bitcoin bitcoin stealer
bitcoin получение ethereum заработок bitcoin weekend Tends towards plutocracy (users with greater stakes can manipulate votes)биржа ethereum майнер monero bitcoin spinner продам ethereum доходность bitcoin ethereum markets
rocket bitcoin 20 bitcoin
bitcoin мошенничество
bitcoin golden mining monero spots cryptocurrency bitcoin development транзакция bitcoin bitcoin торрент cryptocurrency calendar bitcoin 3 bitcoin miner bitcoin майнеры bitcoin evolution bitcoin start ethereum gas bitcoin проблемы monero coin bitcoin презентация bitcoin machine bitcoin icons And if gold was chosen as money, and nobody ever seems to have enough money, then why wasn’t something more plentiful, like grass, chosen as money? Certainly if grass had been chosen, then we’d all have plenty of money! Poverty would’ve been eliminated long ago. So who’s bright idea was it to choose gold?bitcoin биржи токен bitcoin bitcoin usd bitcoin donate кости bitcoin
bitcointalk ethereum
технология bitcoin bitcoin network валюты bitcoin nonce bitcoin bitcoin даром
stealer bitcoin ethereum проблемы boom bitcoin 60 bitcoin bitcoin настройка mine ethereum monero nvidia bitcoin оборудование алгоритмы ethereum bitcoin banks hourly bitcoin банкомат bitcoin
bitcoin girls wired tether bitcoin multisig bitcoin birds bitcoin сервисы ethereum обменять bitcoin программа bitcoin grant bitcoin сложность
пополнить bitcoin ava bitcoin ethereum markets bitcoin скрипты bitcoin plus криптовалюта tether bitcoin boom deep bitcoin bitcoin nvidia claim bitcoin кредит bitcoin bitcoin раздача форекс bitcoin
cryptocurrency gold bitcoin investment bitcoin rt ethereum supernova bitcoin казахстан pool bitcoin The size of each stack item in the EVM is 256-bit, and the stack has a maximum size of 1024.bitcoin спекуляция bitcoin status
xapo bitcoin blacktrail bitcoin bitcoin hub bitcoin faucets bitcoin рублях master bitcoin
bitcoin market bitcoin вложения bitcoin сервисы bitcoin скрипт casper ethereum курс bitcoin course bitcoin обменник ethereum анонимность bitcoin
bitcoin настройка bitcoin кошелек cryptocurrency reddit spin bitcoin monero hardware bitcoin обменник finney ethereum bitcoin бизнес bitcoin пицца bitcoin переводчик bitcoin server криптовалюту bitcoin bitcoin armory ethereum курсы ethereum blockchain компания bitcoin asic bitcoin bitcoin официальный bitcoin автоматический bitcoin будущее адрес ethereum развод bitcoin linux bitcoin salt bitcoin Image for postethereum перевод
полевые bitcoin bitcoin markets bitcoin dynamics gemini bitcoin bitcoin motherboard ethereum info monero hashrate
bitcoin analytics zcash bitcoin bitcoin kazanma раздача bitcoin bitcoin dollar putin bitcoin спекуляция bitcoin bitcoin addnode lealana bitcoin
mining bitcoin
обмен tether rpc bitcoin эфир ethereum konvertor bitcoin добыча ethereum bitcoin раздача обвал ethereum bitcoin сервер > While doubtless a good monetary system should embrace all these aspectsnubits cryptocurrency dag ethereum bitcoin timer icons bitcoin bitcoin исходники monero github капитализация bitcoin monero node bitcoin grant токен bitcoin golden bitcoin equihash bitcoin bitcoin форумы bitcoin life dwarfpool monero bitcoin waves account bitcoin green bitcoin mine ethereum
alpari bitcoin китай bitcoin mmm bitcoin best bitcoin qtminer ethereum ethereum charts monero github stats ethereum
fasterclick bitcoin bitcoin создать monero cryptonote ethereum стоимость bitcoin сбор яндекс bitcoin bitcoin кошелька автомат bitcoin биржа monero ropsten ethereum difficulty monero bitcoin grant bitcoin биржи bitcoin vizit monero btc bitcoin land In a mining pool, a group of Monero miners come together and combine the power of their hardware. This gives them a better chance of verifying transactions (yes, the competition is tough!). The reward they receive from mining is also split between the mining pool. Most mining pools charge you a pool fee, which is generally in the range of 0-2%.The Silk Road story made it into newspapers across the world. This was both good and bad for Bitcoin. It was bad because Bitcoin became linked with online crime, but it was good because it showed that Bitcoin worked. The Silk Road story showed the world that Bitcoin was useful, and that it had a big group of people who wanted to use it (even though they were criminals).The debate about scalability, transaction processing and blocks has continued beyond the fork which led to Bitcoin Cash. In November of 2018, for example, the Bitcoin Cash network experienced its own hard fork, resulting in the creation of yet another derivation of bitcoin called Bitcoin SV. Bitcoin SV was created in an effort to stay true to the original vision for bitcoin that Satoshi Nakamoto described in the bitcoin white paper while also making modifications to facilitate scalability and faster transaction speeds.7 The debate about the future of bitcoin appears to show no signs of being resolved.Bitcoin vs. Ethereum: What's the Difference?bitcoin компания bitcoin check обновление ethereum котировки ethereum unconfirmed bitcoin bitcoin tools
bitcoin telegram raiden ethereum котировки bitcoin акции ethereum bitcoin автоматически регистрация bitcoin bitcoin обменник bitcoin вложения reindex bitcoin ethereum настройка p2p bitcoin ethereum coin battle bitcoin neo bitcoin Bitcoin is a collection of computers, or nodes, that all run Bitcoin's code and store its blockchain. A blockchain can be thought of as a collection of blocks. In each block is a collection of transactions. Because all these computers running the blockchain have the same list of blocks and transactions and can transparently see these new blocks being filled with new Bitcoin transactions, no one can cheat the system. Anyone, whether they run a Bitcoin 'node' or not, can see these transactions occurring live. In order to achieve a nefarious act, a bad actor would need to operate 51% of the computing power that makes up Bitcoin. Bitcoin has around 47,000 nodes as of May 2020 and this number is growing, making such an attack quite unlikely.4poloniex monero Work with freelancers or have a business that pays people in other countries? Use Bitcoin. After all, Bitcoin enables 'under the table' payments to anyone, anywhere. Paying a contractor in Italy or India is now as easy as sending an email.bitcoin 2020 alpha bitcoin bitcoin алгоритм bitcoin base форум bitcoin bitcoin farm пожертвование bitcoin майнить monero time bitcoin kong bitcoin
bitcoin live кликер bitcoin decred cryptocurrency ethereum проект bitcoin database падение ethereum kurs bitcoin обзор bitcoin bitcoin монета up bitcoin bitcoin продам форк ethereum ico cryptocurrency
pool monero вложения bitcoin bitcoin mmm Smart contractsokpay bitcoin ethereum добыча tether курс bitcoin ммвб запрет bitcoin bitcoin tradingview reindex bitcoin
bitcoin софт rigname ethereum hosting bitcoin bitcoin coingecko ethereum график rx470 monero bitcoin calc bitcoin novosti bitcoin майнер
торговать bitcoin системе bitcoin Stablecoins in a nutshellbitcoin nachrichten ethereum myetherwallet solidity ethereum продать monero логотип bitcoin обои bitcoin bitcoin mt5 ethereum complexity взлом bitcoin rx560 monero bitcoin plugin gold cryptocurrency криптовалюту monero wikileaks bitcoin bitcoin оплатить bitcoin программирование lazy bitcoin 4 bitcoin 