Hello. GBT Protocol communities.
The weather is getting chilly.
It is a perfect season for a picnic. What about going out with your friends or family?
Previously I posted a series of Consensus Algorithm.
But today, I will explain the concept of ‘Fork’!
What is Fork?
As the dictionary definition, fork refers to kitchenware that one can spear foods either to hold them to cut with a knife or to lift them to the mouth.
In western, it also means branching into several ways.
In software engineering, a project fork happens when developers take a copy of source code from one software package and start independent development on it, creating a distinct and separate piece of software.
Then what it means in the blockchain world?
‘Fork’ is divided into two concepts in the blockchain.
One is soft fork, and the other is hard fork.
The common thing about them is that they update the previous version to the latest one.
The difference is in the compatibility with the last version.
For our better understanding, we can consider a soft fork as a software firmware.
For example, have you ever seen a notification of a patch when you play a game?
After you download the patch file program, there is no problem to play the game.
Like this example, the soft fork is updating the last version to the latest one without disturbing the state of the last version.
Then could you guess what will be a hard fork?
As you imagine, it is not possible to be compatible between the last version and the latest one in a hard fork.
I used to play a game titled FIFA online 2.
Few months after the release of FIFA online 3, FIFA 2 was stopped to operate.
So I had no other option than to move to FIFA online 3.
Even though FIFA 2 and FIFA 3 are actually the same game, they could not be compatible with each other.
Go back to the main content,
When you use a hard fork in the blockchain, it is not possible to use the last version. Therefore you need the consensus from developers and miners to keep operating the hard fork.
If you can not get an agreement from them, there will be a division in a coin.
For real, Bitcoin is divided into Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum is divided into Ethereum Classic.
Those coins are generated because their system is built on a hard fork.
So today we had time to look at the concept of Fork.
Please stay tuned for the next posting.
Planet wallet, GBT Protocol’s first product, will be released on 24th Sep.
