A fork in the context of blockchain technology refers to a divergence in the blockchain's protocol, resulting in two separate paths. This can occur for various reasons, such as protocol upgrades, differences in the community's vision, or the need to address security vulnerabilities. There are two primary types of forks: soft forks and hard forks. A soft fork is a backward-compatible update, meaning that nodes running the old software version will still recognize the new blocks as valid. In contrast, a hard fork is a more significant change that is not backward-compatible, resulting in the creation of a new blockchain and cryptocurrency if there is no consensus among the network participants. For example, Bitcoin Cash was created from a hard fork of Bitcoin to improve transaction speeds and lower fees. Forks are essential mechanisms for the evolution and adaptation of blockchain networks, allowing them to innovate and address emerging challenges.
