Hi,
Please could someone explain the concept of hard fork, soft fork and segwit.
What is the background? why is it happening? and what are the potential implications?
Thanks
Please could someone explain the concept of hard fork, soft fork and segwit.
What is the background? why is it happening? and what are the potential implications?
Thanks
Ok, here's the big difference and how it applies to most users. Let's say that I have 10 BTC in a wallet, software wallet, and a coder decides that he has a better system for Bitcoin, he alters the code and hard forks the new chain, if the consensus of the nodes like his chain better and use it, and the hard fork becomes the dominant fork, then my wallet, my address and my balance are meaningless.
If the old fork remains, then I still have my BTC
IF the same thing occurs with a soft fork, the consensus can go either way and I keep my balance.
That is not to say that a soft fork can involve dangerous code that can make that 10 BTC balance worthless, but with the soft fork all that historic data is still valid.