FAdvanced
Fork (Hard/Soft)
A change to the Bitcoin protocol. A soft fork is backward-compatible; a hard fork creates a permanent divergence, potentially resulting in a new cryptocurrency (e.g. Bitcoin Cash was created via a hard fork of Bitcoin in 2017).
Forks occur when the rules governing a blockchain change. A soft fork tightens rules in a backward-compatible way, so upgraded and non-upgraded nodes can still coexist. A hard fork introduces incompatible changes, splitting the network into two chains if not everyone adopts the update — sometimes creating an entirely new cryptocurrency. Forks reflect the decentralised, consensus-driven nature of blockchain governance, where changes require broad agreement among participants.