A fork is a split in a blockchain's history or its rules. A software fork upgrades the code; a chain fork happens when nodes run incompatible rules and the history splits in two. A hard fork creates an incompatible break (Bitcoin → Bitcoin Cash); a soft fork is backward-compatible. Why it matters Forks are blockchain governance in action — who gets to change the rules when there's no CEO? Bitcoin's forks produced rival coins; Ethereum's fork after the DAO hack rewrote history. How a community resolves "what the rules are" is a direct test of whether its decentralization is real or theatrical. Related terms blockchain · consensus · governance
A fork is a split in a blockchain’s history or its rules. A software fork upgrades the code; a chain fork happens when nodes run incompatible rules and the history splits in two. A hard fork creates an incompatible break (Bitcoin → Bitcoin Cash); a soft fork is backward-compatible.
Why it matters
Forks are blockchain governance in action — who gets to change the rules when there’s no CEO? Bitcoin’s forks produced rival coins; Ethereum’s fork after the DAO hack rewrote history. How a community resolves “what the rules are” is a direct test of whether its decentralization is real or theatrical.
Related terms
blockchain · consensus ·
governance