Homework on Soft and Hard Forks - Questions

Blockchain and Bitcoin 101
#3352

  1. What is the difference between a soft fork and a hard fork?
    Hard Fork is an update that makes previously invalid blocks valid.
    Soft Fork is an update that makes previously valid blocks invalid.

  2. What are some of the reasons why you would do a hard fork?
    You would do a hard fork if you want to create a new currency or if you want to make a clear and democratic update.

  3. What are some of the risks with performing a hard fork?
    When hard fork is made to the blockchain, the hash power, community and chain splits. It makes the blockchain less secure.

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#3353

1: A hard fork makes previously invalid transactions valid, and a soft fork makes previously valid invalid

2: Changing the rules of consensus

3: The community would be split up

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#3354

Homework on Soft and Hard Forks - Questions

  1. What is the difference between a softfork and a hardfork?

-A hard fork is an expansion of the protocol rules where a previous invalid block becomes a valid block.

  • A soft fork is a contraction on the protocol rules where a previous valid block becomes invalid.
  1. What are some of the reasons why you would do a hardfork?
  • A good reason could be changed in the vision of a community when a change in consensus is need.
    It would be a democratic decision for each participant.
  1. What are some of the risks with performing a hardfork?
  • A division of community and rash power would weaken the project and the security of the project.
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#3355

  1. A soft fork makes previously valid blocks invalid. A hard fork makes previously invalid blocks valid.

  2. It is a clear update (requires 100% of nodes to update), and democratic. It also creates a new currency.

  3. The hash power splits which means less security. Community splits too.

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#3356
  1. What is the difference between a softfork and a hardfork?
    A soft fork contracts the ruleset making previously valid blocks invalid and a hard fork expands the ruleset making previously invalid blocks valid.
  2. What are some of the reasons why you would do a hardfork?
    Provide a more democratic update to the consensus
  3. What are some of the risks with performing a hardfork?
    Weakening the overall security of the network by dividing it and therefore reducing the hash power of the original chain.
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#3357
  1. Hard fork is an update which is not backward compatible. Once a node updates to the latest version it gets disconnected from the previous version nodes of the community. Thereby new block chain in parallel to existing ones gets created.

Where as soft fork is backward compatible, nodes can still communicate with each other even if it is updated or not. Because updates of soft fork doesn’t conflict with existing rules.

2.Hard fork would be required to update some consensus, a planned hard fork would be clear.

3.It fragments the community thereby decreasing its strength and increasing insecurity.

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#3358

A soft fork is a contraction of the rule set and a hard fork is an expansion of the rule set.

Allow miners to decide if they will accept the rules using a democratic process

Splits the chain and community. It can also split off the hash power possibly making the currency less secure.

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#3359
  1. A hard fork update is an expansion of the rule set and previous invalid blocks are valid where a soft fork is a contraction of the rule set and valid blocks are now invalid.
  2. A hard fork would be done if consensus needed to be changed.
  3. The risk would be split hash power and a less secure network and a split chain.
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#3360

1.A Hardfork makes old invalid blocks valid, and softforks makes old valid block invalid.
2. A hardfork would be ideal if the majority of the community believes is best for the integrity of old information on the blocks.
3. Some of the risk of having a hardfork is loosing part of the community and making the security of the chain more vulnerable.

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#3361

  1. A Hard Fork is a previously invalid block made valid (Expansion of rule set), where as
    a Soft Fork is a previously valid block made invalid (Contraction of rule set).

  2. There is a clear and democratic update and no confusion within the network.

  3. This would cause the chain and the community to split. This would also split the hash power which would reduce the security of the network.

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#3362
  1. What is the difference between a softfork and a hardfork?
  • Hardfork happens when the protocol is updated in a way that EXPANDS the definition of valid block. That is the rules for validating blocks are changed and after that change blocks that would have been considered invalid are now considered valid.
  • Softfork happens when the protocol is updated in a way that CONTRACTS the definition of valid block. That is the rules for validating blocks are changed and after that change blocks that would have been considered valid are now considered invalid.
  1. What are some of the reasons why you would do a hardfork?
  • If the protocol maintainers want a “clear update”, that leaves no room for consideration whether some nodes can be left on-updated or not. It requires 100% of the nodes to adopt the update or they are out.
  • Broader definition of “Valid block” is necessary.
  1. What are some of the risks with performing a hardfork?
  • Split the blockchain and the community.
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#3363
  1. What is the difference between a softfork and a hardfork?
    A soft fork makes previously valid blocks invalid and a hardfork makes previously invalid blocks valid. A softfork may not lead to a fork if you are able to update more than 50% of the nodes on the network because it will have more hashpower which will lead to creating a longer block that will always become the new accepted blockchain. A hardfork will always lead to a fork and a new currency because the community will be split into two paths. One following the old set of rules and one following the new set of rules.
  2. What are some of the reasons why you would do a hardfork?
    Reasons you might want to do a hardfork is that we may want to create a new coin. Or maybe we want to create a new ruleset to split the community because it may be beneficial for that coin to abide by a new consensus because the old consensus was clearly not the best choice. It is clear and democratic.
  3. What are some of the risks with performing a hardfork?
    Some risks involved in performing a hardfork is that you are lowering security by cutting down the hashrate of the network. We also split the community which could make the overall strength of the coin decrease due to having less support and users on that specific chain.
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#3364
  1. An update which leads to a hard fork changes the rules such that blocks created after the update, which would have ordinarily been called invalid, are now called valid. (Expansion of the rule set.)
    An update which leads to a soft fork changes the rules such that blocks created after the update, which would have ordinarily been called valid, are now called invalid. (Contraction of the rule set.)
  2. Want to scale, increase security, or correct an error in the code.
  3. Less security since the miners are split into two parts, one for each blockchain fork. The community is split.
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#3365

1 - A softfork contracts the blockchain by making previously valid blocks invalid. A soft fork requires a majority. A hard fork makes previously invalid blocks valid and expands the blockchain. This requires 100% consensus or a hard fork takes place.
2 - Use a hard fork to get complete buy-in from the nodes for the expansion of the rule set
3 - Risk in a hard fork is that not all nodes buy-in which splits the chain and hash power

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#3366

  1. A hardfork is making a previously invalid block valid. A softfork I making a previously valid block invalid.

  2. Create a new currency. Change the consensus rules and change protocol to increase functionality.

  3. Splits the blockchain. Reduces hashpower. Reduces blockchain security

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#3367

  1. Softforks make valid blocks invalid while hardforks make previously invalid blocks valid. In other words Softforks compress rules and hardforks decompress rules.

  2. Disagreement in the community can result in a hard fork. If the community thinks a different set of rules is the better product they may split.

  3. I hardfork can lead to lesser hash power resulting in lower security being a possibility

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#3368

  1. hard forks make previously invalid blocks valid. Soft forks make previously valid blocks invalid

  2. A change in consensus

  3. the network could split with the community not agreeing on the changes and lower security

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#3369

  1. Soft forks get updates that makes previously valid block invalid, Hard forks get updates that makes previously invalid blocks valid.

  2. If you get a hard fork all the blocks are valid.

  3. One of the inevitable risks in hard forks is that it will split the chain.

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#3370

  1. A soft fork is when valid blocks become invalid and a hard fork is when invalid blocks become valid.

  2. Because you can always go back to the old chain if you dislike the update and there is no confusion between the nodes with the update and those without.

3.That the network and community splits into an entirely new chain (Like BCH and BTG)

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#3371

What is the difference between a softfork and a hardfork?

  • Softforks are updates that makes the previously valid blocks invalid while hardforks are updates that make the previously invalid blocks valid.

What are some of the reasons why you would do a hardfork?

  • If you need a clear distinctions on rules.

What are some of the risks with performing a hardfork?

  • there will be a split on the community and the hash power is split as well, leading to less security in the network.
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