What is the difference between a hard fork and an airdrop?

Hard Forks and Airdrops are both ways of obtaining new coins. They are related but imperceptibly different. This has driven to chaos among people in the cryptocurrency industry. However, there are significant differences between these two processes. So, what exactly is the difference between Airdrop and a Fork? What is Airdrop?

What are the different types of cryptocurrency Forks?

There are two types of forks: hard and soft. A hard fork is when a cryptocurrency splits into 2+ branches because the existing code for the coin is changed. This results in the original version and a new version (or versions) of the coin. An example is Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.

Are airdrops a waste of time?

Some in the digital currency community find airdrops of this type to be largely a waste of time, as many of these free giveaways end up creating a surplus of coins in the market. Investors who have suddenly been given tokens for free often turn around and sell those tokens.