Soft Fork
A soft fork is a type of software upgrade that is backward compatible. It is a change to the software protocol where only previously valid blocks/transactions are made invalid. This type of upgrade requires most miners to upgrade in order for the change to be accepted by the network. A soft fork is different from a hard fork, which is a permanent divergence from the previous version of the blockchain, and nodes running previous versions will no longer be accepted by the newest version.
History of Soft Fork
Soft forks have been used in the Bitcoin network since its inception in 2009. The first soft fork was implemented in 2010, when the network upgraded from version 0.1 to version 0.2. This upgrade changed the way transactions were validated, making them more secure. Since then, soft forks have been used to implement new features, such as Segregated Witness (SegWit) and the Lightning Network.
Comparison Table
| Soft Fork | Hard Fork |
|---|---|
| Backward compatible | Permanent divergence |
| Requires most miners to upgrade | Requires all miners to upgrade |
| Changes previously valid blocks/transactions to invalid | Changes previously invalid blocks/transactions to valid |
Summary
A soft fork is a type of software upgrade that is backward compatible. It is a change to the software protocol where only previously valid blocks/transactions are made invalid. This type of upgrade requires most miners to upgrade in order for the change to be accepted by the network. For more information about soft forks, visit websites such as Bitcoin.org, Bitcoin Magazine, and Bitcoin Wiki.
See Also
- Blockchain
- Mining
- Segregated Witness (SegWit)
- Lightning Network
- Proof of Work (PoW)
- Proof of Stake (PoS)
- Consensus Algorithm
- Cryptocurrency
- Digital Currency
- Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)
