Hello Steemians,
I am here again with my homework post for this week on Blockchain Forks given by Professor @awesononso
1.What is a Fork? (In your own Words)
DEFINITION OF FORKS
Forks are mechanism used to better, expand or split a block chain in order for it to perform better.
It Can also be defined as an initiative that tends to strengthen or upgrade a block chain from its original version to a contemporary standard.
No invention or Idea has ever been perfect from the beginning, it takes time for it to move from stage to stage. Even the telephone, the first time it was invented, it was not portable, handy and common the way it is now. Because there has been continual rebranding and upgrading of the mobile phone -That’s the role of Forks.
Forks which has two types may come in different form, forks maybe required for the purpose of upgrading a centralized blockchain and it can also be acquired to decentralize a blockchain for an example Steemit and Hive Blog separated because of issues that came up.
TYPES OF FORKS
There are two types of fork, they are;
- Hard Fork
- Soft Fork
2.Explain in details what a Hard Fork is with examples (Can be of any blockchain).
WHAT IS A HARD FORK
This which by research mostly happens with controversy spits a central blockchain into two (i. e Decentralizing a blockchain) Hard forks as the name implies is incompatible.
When hard forks takes place, there will be total change of blockchain currency, Currency Value and duplication of blockchain.
The blockchain will be divided into parts as a result of the hard forks.
Examples of Hard Forks
An example of a hard fork is the Bitcoin Hard Fork. It is referred to as the most successful fork. When the Bitcoin Cash was splitted out of the Bitcoin Blockchain because of the inclusion of Segwit which brought controversy and disagreements.**
3.Explain in details what a Soft Fork is with examples (Can be of any blockchain).
SOFT FORK
This as the name implies is the soft hand upgrade or improving of a blockchain version for better and safer usage without necessarily splitting the blockchain. Unlike the Hard forks, Soft fork doesn’t change the currency of the blockchain or even repeat blockchain height, it only upgrade the blockchain as to serve the expectancies of human better.
A good example of Soft fork is the upgrade of Bitcoin to contain SegWIT in other to lighten transaction on Bitcoin blockchain. Was created to fasten transaction in the blockchain.
4-: What are the differences between Hard Forks and Soft Forks?
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SOFT AND HARD FORKS
| Hard Fork | Soft Fork |
|---|---|
| Hard fork changes and split the blockchain into other parts. | The soft fork maintains the protocols and upgrade the blockchain to a better standard. |
| In hard fork, blockchain is incompatible, meaning that they cannot co- axis together after splitting. | In soft fork, blockchain are compatible because it’s an improvement on the already existing blockchain. |
| Because of the changes it create a different currency totally different from the original currency. | It doesn’t not need to create another currency because of the changes. |
5.Explain the following Bitcoin Forks and explore the blockchain where necessary. Indicate if they are hard forks or soft forks;
Bitcoin Cash
Segregated Witnesses
The hard fork was created to improve the strength and capacity of the Bitcoin blockchain to 8 Mb.
Bitcoin Cash
This is an hard fork that is considered as the most successful hard fork-BCH. It was decentralized firm the Bitcoin blockchain due to the introduction of the soft forks in the Bitcoin chain called Segregated Witness (SegWIT)
Segregated Witnesses (SegWIT)
This is the soft fork that sliced the Bitcoin blockchain into BTC & BCH , because of the controversy that came up as to reduce the size of the Bitcoin coin , which had an effectual changes on transactions.
This soft forks was executed in the year 2017 . This upgrade has caused nothing to the Bitcoin blockchain but the controversy of its creation have took for the creation of another blockchain called the Bitcoin Cash which has created its own currency, repeated the Bitcoin blockchain height, and spitted the BTC blockchain. Was introduced to secure transaction in the Bitcoin blockchain as to keep data of every transaction.
6.Write on the Steem and Hive Hard fork and show similarities in their Genesis Blocks(Provide screenshots).
STEEM AND HIVE HARD FORKS
Steemit witness a lot of challenges in 2018, when it was believed that the steem blog was hacked- a soft fork was used upgrade the blockchain as to prevent it from hackers.
Because of the disagreement for the total takeover of steemit blog by Justin Sun’s TRON (TRN) was the reason why 31 developers, marketers and co-developers (Martin Lee is among the developers) spliced the blockchain to create the “HIVE”. Hive which is a twin of Steem is an improved version of steemitblog.
Some relative qualities of Steem and Hive;
- Steem Power (SP) - Hive Power (HP)
- SBD -HBD
3)Same heading ( but in Hive you have the inclusion of mute users and blacklisted users.
How to know Steem blockchain Genesis Block
To check for steem Genesis Block I used the link https://steemworld.org/ .
I logged in using my username and posting key and then I clicked on Block Explorer.
I inserted the number 1 for the block number because its the first block I want to check.
Here's the Steem Genesis block.
How to know Hive Genesis Block
To check The Genesis block of the Hive blockchain I visited the link; https://hiveblocks.com
I inserted the number 1 to search for the first block.
The Genesis block appeared.
CONCLUSION
This is indeed a commendable lesson from Professor @awesononso.
We have two type of forks, which are soft and hard forks.
The soft fork is basically for upgrading and improving a blockchain to a better and more safer version.
Then, Hard forks is to spit from a particular blockchain , create a new currency totally different for the mother blockchain.
Thank you for this lesson @awesononso it was indeed one of the best.