What does blockchain forking mean

1.

The capacity of a block in bitcoin is 1m (megabytes). A transaction is between 250 and 500 bytes

according to this algorithm, a block contains about 4194.3 transactions

the confirmation time of a block in bitcoin is 10 minutes, so the seven transactions that a block can process per second may sometimes be less than seven

What are the consequences

The bifurcations of

bitcoin are divided into hard bifurcations and soft bifurcations

hard fork means that when the block format or transaction format of bitcoin changes, the UN upgraded nodes refuse to verify the blocks proced by the upgraded nodes

the upgraded nodes can verify the blocks proced by the non upgraded nodes, and they continue the chain they think is correct, so they are divided into two chains

What is soft bifurcation

soft bifurcation means that when the data structure of bitcoin transaction changes,

UN upgraded nodes can verify the blocks proced by upgraded nodes,

and upgraded nodes can also verify the blocks proced by UN upgraded nodes

2.

In the discussion of blockchain, bitcoin and other digital currencies, we often hear the word "bifurcation". So what is bifurcation? What is the effect of bifurcation

blockchain

before talking about bifurcation, popularize a little knowledge of blockchain, so as to help us understand what bifurcation is more easily (if you don't have any concept of blockchain, please read my previous articles, which are all popular words to help you understand what blockchain is)

blockchain, as the name suggests, is a chain composed of blocks. Of course, this kind of chain is just a figurative metaphor. To put it bluntly, data blocks are connected orderly. In bitcoin, the transaction records of bitcoin are stored in the block. The size of the block and the space occupied by the transaction records determine how many transactions can be stored in a block. These transaction records are packaged into blocks, and then the blocks are connected one by one to form a blockchain

We know that bitcoin software, like other software, needs to be updated and modified regularly in order to make it better. So a new version will appear, but not everyone will download the new version, so one miner will run the old version, and some will run the new version. If the old and new versions are not compatible, the blockchain will bifurcate. Because there may be differences between the version blocks and the old version blocks, they cannot be connected to the same blockchain, so there will be two or even more chains, which is called bifurcation

soft forking

soft forking refers to that when the new consensus rules are released, nodes that have not been upgraded will proce illegal blocks because they do not know the new consensus rules, resulting in temporary forking. This kind of bifurcation will be graally repaired with the upgrading of nodes

hard fork

hard fork refers to the permanent divergence of the blockchain. After the release of the new consensus rules, some nodes that have not been upgraded cannot verify the blocks proced by the upgraded nodes, and usually hard fork occurs. Therefore, in the field of digital currency, hard bifurcation often leads to the emergence of new currencies. For example, the hard bifurcation of Ethereum led to the emergence of eth

What is bifurcation? What is bitcoin bifurcation

3. Forking is different from ordinary upgrading. Ordinary upgrading does not affect agreement consensus before and after upgrading, and generally does not need the participation of community consensus or computing consensus. According to the modification of the protocol, bifurcation can be divided into soft bifurcation and hard bifurcation

existing definition:

[lightning definition] hard fork refers to that when the bitcoin block format or transaction format (this is the widely spread "consensus" (should be part of the agreement consensus)) changes, the UN upgraded node refuses to verify the blocks proced by the upgraded node, but the upgraded node can verify the blocks proced by the UN upgraded node, Then we continue the chain that we think is right, so we divide it into two chains< A permanent divergence in the block chain, commonly occurs when non upgraded nodes can't validate blocks created by upgraded nodes that follow new consensus rules, The UN upgraded node can verify the blocks proced by the upgraded node, and the upgraded node can also verify the blocks proced by the UN upgraded node<

a temporary fork in the block chain which commonly occurs when miners using non upgraded nodes vialate a new consensus rule their nodes don't know about.

I don't think we can say which definition is right or wrong. The specific definition can be summed up according to the differences between the two that have been widely agreed in the community, and it doesn't need authority to specify

hard fork: without forward compatibility, the previous version will be unusable and need to be upgraded

soft fork: it has good compatibility, at least some functions of previous versions are available, and can not be upgraded

hard branching: at the level of blockchain, there will be two branching chains, one old chain and one new chain

soft bifurcation: there are no forked chains at the level of blockchain, but only the blocks that make up the chain, including new blocks and old blocks

hard forking: it is necessary to agree with the forking upgrade at a certain time point, and those who do not agree will enter the old chain

soft bifurcation: for quite a long time, it is allowed to continue to use the original version to generate old blocks and coexist with new blocks without upgrading

4. After the release of the new consensus rules, some nodes that have not been upgraded cannot verify the blocks proced by the upgraded nodes, and usually hard bifurcation occurs.

5. Hard bifurcation is caused by the unacceptable permanent divergence of blockchain, while soft bifurcation is caused by the acceptable divergence of blockchain. The emergence of hard bifurcations means the emergence of a blockchain that cannot accept the new consensus mechanism. This blockchain is equivalent to the old version of the system, while the new version accepts the new consensus mechanism. Although the two versions are not different, they are still interrelated. The block nodes caused by soft bifurcation are compatible with the new consensus mechanism, and will not form another block chain. Hard and soft bifurcations are common in coin circles. In addition to currency speculation, blockchain can be applied in many places, including medical care, insurance, ecation, food, etc. I know a company specializing in blockchain development, Xuanling technology. Their evaluation in the instry is not bad.

6. Fork coin, as the name suggests, comes from the concept of "fork" in blockchain. The early bifurcations of bitcoin were a compromise solution to the problem of bitcoin block expansion
bifurcation means an incomplete upgrade of bitcoin. After upgrading, some UN upgraded nodes refuse to verify the blocks proced by the upgraded nodes, but the upgraded nodes can verify the blocks proced by the UN upgraded nodes, thus splitting the two chains

nowadays, there is a flood of counterfeit coins in the market, which are actually some bifurcated coins

a typical split coin operation is to announce a split coin and give each user a special new "split coin" or "candy" in a ratio of 1:1
after users generally get the new currency after the split, there will be a natural demand for trading. At this time, public opinion can be guided, and the huge number of users and trading demand force the exchange to put on the currency
after the currency is put on the exchange, the holders of the forked currency first use a certain amount of capital to pull up the forked currency, create the illusion of pursuing, and then sell their "pre g" forked currency for arbitrage

but players can also think that some forked coins are valuable, so they can follow up. Therefore, the exchange of forked coins is also valuable. There are still many such activities, such as bitfinx, coin rise, coin safety, etc.

7. Fork coin, as the name suggests, comes from the concept of "fork" in blockchain. The early bifurcations of bitcoin were a compromise solution to the problem of bitcoin block expansion
bifurcation means an incomplete upgrade of bitcoin. After upgrading, some UN upgraded nodes refuse to verify the blocks proced by the upgraded nodes, but the upgraded nodes can verify the blocks proced by the UN upgraded nodes, thus splitting the two chains
now there is a flood of counterfeit coins in the market, which are actually some bifurcated coins
a typical split coin operation is to announce a split coin and give each user a special new "split coin" or "candy" in a ratio of 1:1
after users generally get the new currency after the split, there will be a natural demand for trading. At this time, public opinion can be guided, and the huge number of users and trading demand force the exchange to put on the currency
after the currency is put on the exchange, the holders of the forked currency first use a certain amount of capital to pull up the forked currency, create the illusion of pursuing, and then sell their "pre g" forked currency for arbitrage
however, players can also think that some forked coins are valuable, so they can follow up. Therefore, the exchange of forked coins is also valuable. There are still many such activities, such as bitfinx, coin rise, coin safety, etc.

8. What is blockchain bifurcation? Will bifurcation cause my bitcoin to split in two
it's very easy to upgrade the software in the centralized system. Click "upgrade" in the app store. However, in decentralized systems such as blockchain, "upgrade" is not so simple, and may even result in the bifurcation of blockchain
in short, bifurcation refers to the divergence of opinions ring the "upgrade" of the blockchain, which leads to the bifurcation of the blockchain. Because there is no centralized organization, every code upgrade of digital assets such as bitcoin needs to be approved by the bitcoin community. If the bitcoin community fails to reach an agreement, the blockchain is likely to form a fork
taking bitcoin as an example, in July 2017, in order to solve the congestion problem of bitcoin blockchain, some bitcoin enthusiasts proposed bitcoin cash bifurcation scheme, resulting in bitcoin blockchain split in two
according to whether the forked blockchain is compatible with the old blockchain, the forking can be divided into "hard forking" and "soft forking".