What is a bitcoin fork?

If you are just getting involved in cryptocurrencies, and you’ve done a little research, you might have read about the great scaling debate and the topic of bitcoin forks recently. Forks represent changes to the bitcoin protocol that make previous rules valid or invalid.

What is a codebase fork?

A codebase fork typically makes tweaks to the original codebase. In the context of Bitcoin, codebase forks can be entirely compatible with the Bitcoin protocol, they can cause a blockchain fork or they can establish a whole new cryptocurrency. A blockchain fork happens when a blockchain branches into two versions of transaction history.

Should a hard fork be called a soft fork?

Especially in the context of Bitcoin, some argue that unless all users upgrade, the “upgraded” protocol shouldn’t be called a hard fork at all, but a new cryptocurrency or “forkcoin.” A soft fork is a type of protocol upgrade that tightens or adds rules.

What are the two biggest Bitcoin hard Forks?

The two biggest Bitcoin hard forks are Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold, although there are others as well. Bitcoin Cash is a hard fork of Bitcoin that occurred on August 1, 2017. It was designed to overcome the problems that Bitcoin was experiencing with delayed transactions and lag.