A Deeper Dive Into Blockchain Fork

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Topics: Fork, Blockchain, Ethereum, Blockchain fork

The decentralized nature of public blockchains (e.g., bitcoin and etherium) means that participants in the network must come to an agreement about the shared status of blockchain (shared public ledger and blocks and blockchain protocol). Consensus results between network nodes result in a blockchain containing verified data (transactions) confirming that the network is valid. However, many times, the nodes in the network cannot come to a consensus on the future status of blockchain. This phenomenon leads to forks (similar to a tuning fork used in experimental science), which means that the chain of the best ‘single’ blocks is divided into two or more chains, all of which are valid.

This leads to three types of forks that can occur based on the backward-compatibility of the blockchain protocol and the time a new block was cut. These types include:

Soft fork: When the blockchain protocol is changed backwards-compliant

Hard fork: When the blockchain protocol is changed backwards-incompatibly

Temporary fork: When two miners are mining a new block at the same time

Now, it's time to dig deeper!

Soft fork -

When there is a change in the software running on the nodes (called 'full nodes') to act as a network participant, the change is validated by the old version of the software with new block mined according to the new rules (in blockchain protocol). This feature is also known as backward-compatibility.

For example:

The SegWit update of the Bitcoin network added new class addresses (Bech 32). However, this does not apply to existing P2SH addresses. A full node with a P2SH type address can make the correct transaction with the node of the Bech32 type address.

Hard fork -

When there is a change in the software running at full nodes to act as a network participant, the change is based on the new rules (in blockchain protocol) that the new blocks mined are considered invalid by the old version of the software. When hard forks occur, new currencies (with the correct original currency) such as Ethereum (original: Ethereum, new: Ethereum Classic) and Bitcoin (original: Bitcoin, new: Bitcoin cash) come into effect. Coin is distributed equally to the entire node who choose to upgrade their software without incurring any material loss. Such hard forks are often controversial (creating conflicts in the community).

The end result of joining a particular chain is with the full node. If they choose to join the new chain, they will need to upgrade the software to validate the new transactions, while the nodes that do not choose to upgrade their software will continue to operate.

For example:

The new Caspar update for Ethereum Blockchain, in which the consensus protocol changes from one type of work (Pow) to proof of stake (PoS). Nodes installing the Caspar update will use the new consensus protocol. Caspar does not match complete nodes that do not choose to install the update.

Temporary fork / accidental fork -

While many miners mine a new block almost simultaneously, the entire network disagrees with the choice of the new block. Some may accept a block mined by one party, leading to different chain of blocks , while others may agree on other alternatives (blocks) available. Such a situation arises because it takes some limited time for information to spread throughout the entire blockchain network, so there may be conflicting views on the chronology of events. In this fork, 2 or more blocks have same height.

If one of the chains dies (becomes orphaned) the temporary barricades will eventually settle themselves, as most of the whole nodes choose to add and synchronize the other blocks with the new blocks.

For example:

Temporary forks do not often occur, and a common occurrence that triggers this fork is the mining of a block by more than one party at a time.

Causes of Blockchain Fork -

Add new function:

Blockchain code is constantly being updated. Since most public blockchains are open source, it was created by people all over the world. Improvements, issues are created, resolved and new versions are released when the time is right.

Fix security issues:

Blockchain (and cryptocurrency above it) is a relatively new technology compared to the traditional currency (notes, coins, check) and research is still underway to fully understand it. Therefore, versions are pumped and updates are released to fix security issues that arise along the way.

Reverse transactions:

If all the transactions of a particular period of time are found to be infringing and malicious then the community can actually avoid them.

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