Hard fork
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
A hard fork is a critical change to the blockchain protocol that changes the state of the exciting blocks to either valid, or invalid. This prevents the nodes that are running on the old version of the blockchain from being able to validate blocks on the new chain.
Noteworthy hard forks
Ethereum
In 2016 Ethereum blockchain hard forked, to implement the Metropolis upgrade, which added number of new features, such as sharding and proof-of-stake.
Bitcoin
Forks of the client software
| Name | Ticker symbol | Forked block | Date | Additional information | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin XT | 2014-12-27 | It sped up the transaction speed from 7 per second to 24, by increasing the block size from 1mb to 8mb[1][2]. | Failed | ||
| Bitcoin Classic | Tried to increase the maximum block size from 1mb to 2mb[3] | Failed | |||
| Bitcoin Unlimited | https://gitlab.com/bitcoinunlimited/BCHUnlimited [4] |
Intended hard forks splitting the cryptocurrency
| Name | Ticker symbol | Forked block | Date | Additional information | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin Cash | BCH | 478558 | 2017-08-01 | Created a new cryptocurrency with a larger block size than Bitcoin.[5][6] | Active |
| Bitcoin Gold | BTG | 491407 | 2017-10-24 | [7] | |
| Bitcoin Diamond | BCD | 493744 | 2017-11-25 | ||
| Bitcoin Private | BTCP | 494784 | 2017-11-28 | an owner got 1 Bitcoin Private (BTCP) and 1 ZClassic (ZCL) | |
| Bitcoin Interest | BCI | 503474 | 2017-1213 | for each bitcoin (BTC), an owner got 1 Bitcoin Interest (BCI). | |
| Bitcoin SV | BSV | 556766 | 2018-11-15 | ||
| eCash | XEC | 661648 | 2020-11-15 |
External links
https://www.investopedia.com/tech/history-bitcoin-hard-forks/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bitcoin_forks
References
- ↑ https://www.coindesk.com/tag/bitcoin-xt/
- ↑ https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bitcoin_XT
- ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bitcoin_Classic&oldid=965389871
- ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin_Unlimited
- ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin_Cash
- ↑ https://cointelegraph.com/learn/what-is-bitcoin-cash-and-how-does-bch-work-a-beginners-guide
- ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin_Gold