If you are one of those people who have not heard of soft forks and hard forks, you might find them to be a strange set of cutleries. In cryptocurrency parlance, a fork can refer to a split in a blockchain. Network developers often make voluntary protocol or software updates to their blockchains due to various possibilities. Which has two different forms – soft forks and hard forks. If we look at soft forks, it is generally used to make minor changes to the blockchain. However, this change does not hinder the functional continuity of the previous version of the blockchain. As a result, non-advanced users can still interact with each other. Go to https://bitlq.net/ and register for free to start trading Bitcoin.
The soft forks are backward compatible. On the other hand, hard forks are usually used to make major changes to the blockchain. These changes are seen as either a disruption to the blockchain or a continuation of the previous version. However, through the hard fork, non-elevated users cannot interact with upgraded users. Unlike soft forks, hard forks are backward and incompatible. Furthermore, the concept of changing the underlying protocols or rules of software through the community is considered a common feature of open-source software. However, the concepts of hard forks and soft forks are considered specific to blockchain technology.
By whom can changes be made to the blockchain network?
Before getting into the full details of the concepts of soft forks and hard forks, let us find out who can make changes in a decentralized blockchain. Just as separate blockchains adopt separate ways of working via it, here we will give an instance of bitcoin (BTC) and its governance.
Miners
Here if we talk about miners, they are mainly those individuals through whom transactions are verified and added to the blockchain. In the BTC blockchain, each transaction is fully validated and verified by miners, which requires them to solve complex mathematical puzzles that require their computing power. In this way, they are rewarded with almost 6.25 BTC for each block they add to the network.
Developers
The individuals through whom the code of the blockchain network is developed are called developers. Their main task is to completely establish the rules for the blockchain network as well as define the logic. Apart from this, if you want, you can become a developer by making changes in the code of the network, because the blockchain has come out completely as open-source software.
Soft forks vs Hard Forks
Soft Forks
On the other hand, if we talk about soft forks, then all the rules introduced here are not at all opposed to the old hard forks. Furthermore, nodes of the new blockchain version can still communicate with nodes of the older version. Also, usually, soft forks are used here whenever new features are implemented at the programming level. On the other hand, if we talk about network users, they do not see it. However, communication between new nodes that are created via soft forks remains completely seamless with older nodes. In addition, new nodes typically only filter information from old nodes that is not essential to the operation of new nodes.
Hard Forks
The possibility of hard forks comes into play when the old version is not accepted by the new node protocol. The fundamental method for characterizing a hard fork is as an extreme change in the convention of a blockchain network, normally seen. Here blocks that are already valid are reversed or invalidated entirely. Discussing revolutionary change, it is changed into two parts of the blockchain. If we talk about one of which, follows the emulation version of a blockchain protocol, while the other one follows the new Edition of the blockchain protocol.
