A divergence in a blockchain’s history, creating two separate chains. Soft forks are backward-compatible; hard forks create two permanently separate chains (Bitcoin Cash split from Bitcoin in 2017; Ethereum Classic split from Ethereum in 2016). Most contested forks fail — the larger chain captures the network effect and the smaller chain trends toward irrelevance.
Fork
A divergence in a blockchain's history, creating two separate chains. Soft forks are backward-compatible; hard forks create two permanently separate chains (Bitcoin Cash split from Bitcoin in 2017; Ethereum Classic split from Ethereum in 2016). Most contested forks fail — the larger chain captures the network effect and the smaller chain trends toward irrelevance.
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