Everything you need to know about how forking takes place on the blockchain.
06 January 2021 | ZebPay Trade Desk
Contrary to popular belief, forking isn’t just blockchain terminology. Its principles are embedded in the origins of software engineering. In software engineering, a fork takes place 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.
In rather basic terms, a fork is what happens when a blockchain diverges into two potential paths — either with regard to a network’s transaction history or a new rule in deciding what makes a transaction valid. Sometimes forks are also willingly introduced to the network. This occurs when developers want to amend the rules of the software, and use it to decide whether a transaction is valid or not. Forking in each and every Blockchain is different, based on the design architecture and characteristics of a particular blockchain.
Generally speaking, a fork can happen in either of the two following situations:
Anytime two miners find a block at nearly the same time. Developers seek to change the rules the software uses to decide whether a transaction is valid or not.
Hence, one can say that forking happens because a set of miners, who create bitcoin, believe that there are more efficient options to optimise the exchange of an existing bitcoin. Bitcoin forks are splits that happen in the transaction chain based on different user opinions about transaction history. These splits create new versions of Bitcoin currency, and they are a natural result of the structure of the blockchain system, which operates without a central authority.
