This article explains the concepts of hard forks and soft forks in blockchain technology. A hard fork is a radical change to the protocol of a blockchain network that requires all nodes to agree. It can result in a chain split if not all miners conform to the new rules, creating two separate blockchains. On the other hand, a soft fork is a change to the protocol that is backward-compatible and does not require all users to upgrade. Soft forks can add new features or reverse transactions.

The article also discusses different types of forks. Planned forks are undertaken to introduce enhancements to a cryptocurrency project, while contentious forks occur when there is disagreement within a community, resulting in a hard fork and chain split. Rescue hard forks can be initiated to nullify undesirable events such as hacking, and forks can also be undertaken to create new coins.

Examples of hard forks include Bitcoin Cash (BCH), which increased the block size in the Bitcoin network, and SegWit, a soft fork update implemented by Bitcoin to address transaction malleability and scalability.

The article concludes by stating that forks occur due to disagreements among developers, and while successful forks can bring attention and investment to a project, they can also be risky and potentially lead to the collapse of a project if not executed properly.



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