The 10 Most Important Ethereum Hard Forks in Order

Understanding hard forks requires knowing the basics about blockchain technology and what is cryptocurrency as an application of that technology. This was before the SegWit soft fork (more on that shortly), so nodes would only accept blocks smaller than 1MB. If you created a 2MB block that was otherwise valid, other nodes would still reject it. Sometimes, a hard fork can have a profound impact on a blockchain and cryptocurrency. It depends on the circumstances surrounding the fork and the sentiments of the community and developers.

What Was the First Bitcoin Fork?

Usually, the forked code is similar to the original, but with important modifications, and the two “prongs” comfortably co-exist. Knowing this, you may be wondering what the real differences are between the two. So, here is how you can tell a blockchain hard from a soft fork. If you’re new to cryptocurrency, you may have heard the term «fork» thrown around.

Why Do Hard Forks Happen?

Technically, these were two hard forks executed on the same day, April 12, 2023, at block 17,034,870. Shanghai introduced staking withdrawals on the execution layer, while Capella was an upgrade of the Beacon Chain, making it possible for blocks to accept withdrawal operations. Hard forks often produce new tokens, but investors should remember that they’re not guaranteed to be valuable, and many may eventually be worthless.

• People were watching in real time as the money was  stolen—like a live video feed of a bank robbery.
• A cryptocurrency fork is a blockchain software update that can either implement minor changes to the existing protocol or cause it to split into two separate and incompatible protocols.
• Fidelity is not recommending or endorsing this investment by making it available to its customers.
• Hard forks generally require all nodes or users who wish to stay on the new chain to upgrade to the latest version of the software.

How Hard Forks Work

Code might need adjusting to fix errors or address a weakness, or a group might want to create their own blockchain and cryptocurrency. Blockchains are basically programs that create and store files of information on a network of computers and devices. There are usually layers of software completing different tasks, some methods for the network to reach an agreement on the blockchain’s state, and many network participants. Each layer’s underlying programming can be changed as needed, but it has to be accepted by the network’s participants to be adopted. A soft fork is essentially the opposite of a hard fork, whereby newly implemented changes remain backward-compatible with older versions. Ethereum burst onto the virtual currency scene almost a year ago.

Hard Fork vs. Soft Fork

Sometimes, they’re upgrades to the existing protocol to take it in a new direction, usually to specialize its use in some way. Forks have to do with those rules, the protocol that sets the operating parameters of a blockchain. Other notable hard forks include Ethereum and Ethereum Classic.

Hard Fork: What Happens When a Cryptocurrency Splits In Two?

In some cases, it can significantly increase the value of a cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency forks are pivotal turning points in a blockchain network’s evolution. Although forks can offer some important benefits, they also come with significant challenges and risks. Ethereum, the second most significant blockchain, is perhaps also the most evolved network based on the series of critical hard forks it has undergone.

Crypto forks: What they are and how they work

Then, miners, exchanges, and other major apps that are built on it need to decide if they want to a part of the new version of Ethereum or the original. Whether to do so has created an existential question for Ethereum. One of its underlying tenets is that it’s a decentralized platform, meaning the power lies almost exclusively with all of its users. By stepping in to fix this problem, it would completely undermine that objective. This has led to a heated debate between those who want to return the funds and the “code is king” purists who say that the the power of smart contracts lies in their immutability.

But there are also “soft forks,” or changes, modifications, tweaks that don’t modify the fundamental rules for creating blocks. In a soft split, the new blockchain is still compatible with the old one. Because the two versions of the software typically remain compatible in soft forks and not for hard forks, a hard fork creates two blockchains, while a soft fork still remains one blockchain. A hard fork is different from a soft fork, which is a protocol change that does not cause a rejection of the pre-existing rule set.

While the core developers who designed and run Ethereum didn’t really have anything to do with the DAO, they were left to deal with the mess. The seven of them, led by Vitalik Buterin, decided to hack the hacker. For Ethereum, the backbone of the project, it was a major vote of confidence in its nascent technology. By May 21, it had raised $150 million from roughly 11,000 investors, in what’s considered the biggest crowdfunding effort in history. While it reduced the earnings of validators, it was a necessary move and the last significant fork before the Merge. Unlike Bitcoin, which has a maximum of 21,000,000 tokens, Ethereum doesn’t have maximum mineable tokens.