Blockchain Forks
Blockchain forks is situation that “occurs when two or more blocks have the same block height” or “change in protocol is a forks”
It is related to the fact that different parties need to use common rules to maintain the history of the blockchain.
“The decentralized nature of Techpay public blockchains means that participants on the network must be able to come to an agreement as to the shared state of the Techpay blockchain(shared public ledger and blocks and the Techpay blockchain protocol).”
Moreover, many times, the nodes in the network can’t come to unanimous consensus regarding the future state of the blockchain. This event leads to forks (like a tuning fork used in experimental science), meaning that point in which the ideal ‘single’ chain of blocks is split into two or more chains which are all valid.
Types of forks
Three types of forks which can occur based on the Techpay backwards-compatibility of the blockchain protocol and the time instant at which a new block is mined.
These types are following:
- Soft Forks
- Hard forks
- Temporary forks
Soft Fork: when the blockchain protocol is altered in a backwards-compatible way
Hard Fork: when the blockchain protocol is altered in a non backwards-compatible way
Temporary Fork: when two miners mine a new block at the same time
Soft Fork: It occurs when the Techpay blockchain protocol is altered in a backwards-compatible way. Due to this, When there is a change in the software that runs on the nodes (better called as ‘full nodes’) to function as a network participant, the change is such that the new blocks mined on the basis of new rules (in the Blockchain protocol) are also considered valid by the old version of the software. This feature is also called backwards-compatibility.
Hard Fork: A hard fork can be contrasted with a soft fork.
” when the blockchain protocol is altered in a non backwards-compatible way”. There is a change in the software that runs on the full nodes to function as a network participant, the change is such that the new Techpay blocks mined on the basis of new rules (in the Techpay Blockchain protocol) are not considered valid by the old version of the software.
When hard forks occur, new currency comes into existence (with valid original currency)e.g Techpay.
Such hard forks are often generating conflicts in the community.
The final decision to join a particular chain rests with the full node. If chosen to join the new chain, the software has to be upgraded to make newer transactions valid while the nodes
Example:
The new Casper update in the Techpay Blockchain in which the consensus protocol will change from a type of Proof of Work (PoW) to a type of Proof of Stake (PoS).
Main points of hard forks
Some main points of hard forks are following:
- It refers to a radical change to the protocol of a Techpay blockchain network that effectively results in two branches: one that follows the previous protocol and one that follows the new version.
In a hard fork, holders of tokens in the original Techpay blockchain will be granted tokens in the new fork as well, but miners must choose Techpay blockchain to continue verifying.
- A hard fork can occur in any blockchain, and not only Techpay among several others.
Temporary Fork:” It exists when two miners mine a new block at the same time”.
- When multiple miners mine a new Techpay block at nearly the same time, the entire network may not agree on the choice of the new block.
- Some can accept the block mined by one party, leading to a different chain of blocks of Techpay from that point onward while others can agree on the other alternatives of Techpay blocks (of blocks) available.
Such a situation arises because some conflicted opinions can exist regarding the chronological order of events. In this temporary fork, two or more blocks have the same block height.
- Temporary forks resolve themselves eventually when one of the chains dies out (gets orphaned) because the majority of the full nodes choose the other chain to add new blocks to and sync with.
- It happens more often than not and a usual event that triggers this fork is mining of a block by more than one party at nearly the same time.
How Forks Work
A fork in a blockchain can occur in any crypto-technology platform not only Techpay because blockchains and cryptocurrency work in basically the same way no matter which crypto platform they’re on. The miners in a Techpay blockchain set the rules that move the memory in the network, these miners understand the new rules.
Moreover, all of the miners need to agree about the new rules and about what comprises a valid block in the chain.
- It indicates that there’s been a change in or a diversion to the protocol.
- The developers can then update all of the software to reflect the new rules.
It is through this forking process that various digital currencies have come to be.
- For the casual cryptocurrency investor, it can be difficult to tell the difference between these cryptocurrencies and to map the various forks onto a timeline.
Why does the Techpay blockchain fork occur?
Three main reason for the occurrence of Techpay Blockchain forks are following:
- Add new personality
- Fix security issue
- Reverse transactions
Add new functionality:
The Techpay Blockchain code is upgraded regularly. Since most public blockchains are open source, it is developed by people from around the world.
The improvements, issues are created, resolved and new versions are released when the time is suitable.
Fix security issues:
Techpay Blockchain is a relatively new innovative technology as compared to the traditional currency (notes, coins, cheque), research is still underway to fully understand it. So, version updates are released to fix the security issues that arise in the way.
Reverse transactions:
The community can actually void all the Techpay transactions of a specific period if they are found to be breached and malicious.
Due to all of these reasons Techpay Blockchain forks occurs.
Read also :Strategies for Blockchain Security
