Fork

A fork in a blockchain is a significant event that occurs when the blockchain diverges into two separate paths due to a change in the network’s protocol. There are two main types of forks: hard forks and soft forks. A hard fork creates two distinct blockchains that are not compatible with each other, meaning any previous transactions are split between the two. This happens when there is a disagreement in the community about how the blockchain should operate. A famous example is the hard fork between Ethereum and Ethereum Classic, following the DAO hack in 2016. A soft fork, on the other hand, maintains backward compatibility, meaning the network upgrade doesn’t split the blockchain. Forks allow blockchains to implement new features or fix security vulnerabilities.