What Is A Blockchain Fork?
A blockchain fork is a split in the blockchain's network, creating two potential paths forward due to a change in the protocol or rules.
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🕒 10:25 AM
📅 Dec 02, 2025
✍️ By Iceprince
This can happen intentionally for upgrades or to resolve community disagreements, or accidentally when miners find new blocks at nearly the same time. Forks can be classified as hard forks, which are non-backward compatible and can lead to two separate blockchains, or soft forks, which are backward-compatible updates.
Intentional forks
1. Upgrades: Developers intentionally create a fork to add new features, fix vulnerabilities, or improve the network's performance.
2. Community disagreements: A fork can emerge when there's a disagreement within the community about the future direction of the project, allowing a dissenting group to create a new chain with its own vision.
Accidental forks
1. Simultaneous block discovery: Sometimes, two or more miners find a new block at nearly the same time, creating a temporary split.
2. Resolution: This type of fork is usually temporary and is resolved when miners begin adding blocks to one of the chains, and the network eventually adopts the longer chain, with the shorter one becoming obsolete.
Types of forks
Hard fork:
1. A radical and non-backward compatible change to the protocol.
2. All users must upgrade to the new version to continue operating on the new chain.
3. If there is not unanimous support, this can result in two separate, independent blockchains. An example is the creation of Bitcoin Cash from Bitcoin.
Soft fork:
1. A backward-compatible update to the network's rules.
2. Older versions of the software are still valid under the new rules.
3. It is a less disruptive way to implement upgrades.