The crypto and blockchain industries have developed numerous innovative and fascinating terms. The fork is one of these terms. Also, you do not use this fork to have your food with!

Blockchain forks refer to copying and modifying the source code to produce something new. Forks are frequently used and particularly common in open-source projects.

In this article, we’ll discuss hard forks and types of Bitcoin hard forks that have been in existence till now. Let’s begin!

Types of Forks: Hard and Soft Fork

There are two types of forks: hard and soft. Since soft forks are backward compatible, users of the new and old protocols can still interact with one another. On the other hand, hard forks are significantly bigger modifications, where users of the newer protocol version no longer accept the older version.

The oldest crypto, Bitcoin, has undergone multiple forks over the years. Some of these forks have significantly changed how this blockchain works now. They even led to the development of further iterations of the crypto.

Since we’ll be discussing the history of Bitcoin hard forks, here’s a brief overview of hard forks in general.

About Hard Fork

To explain in layman’s terms, a hard fork occurs when a copy of a coin leads to a creation of a new coin. Hard forks split the blockchain into two, where a group of miners or users does not consent to the new update. This results in their leaving the old network and forming a crypto of their own. 

A hard fork is a change in a crypto protocol that is not backward compatible. 

The implication is that all the previous nodes must update themselves to the new version. If they do not, it results in a split or a fork and the creation of a new currency. Both versions become separate and distinct and operate independently after that.

The miners who owned bitcoins at the time of the split can claim their new bitcoins on the forked network, given the fact that the new network includes ‘replay protection’ measures. Replay protection prevents the old network from erroneously recognizing its transactions and vice versa. This measure is necessary as spending one set of coins on one network might result in losing those on the other.

Now, let’s see the 7 types of Bitcoin hard forks that have existed ever since.

7 Types of Bitcoin Hard Forks

Bitcoin XT

Bitcoin XT, a significant hard fork of Bitcoin, was created by Mike Hearn in late 2014. It aimed to incorporate new features and increase transaction speed from 7 to 24 transactions per second by expanding the block size from 1 to 8 megabytes. Although initially successful with over 1,000 nodes, Bitcoin XT lost user interest and is now unavailable, with its website no longer accessible.

Bitcoin Classic

After the decline of Bitcoin XT, some community members sought an increase in block sizes. In response, developers created Bitcoin Classic in early 2016. Unlike XT, which proposed an 8-megabyte block size, Classic aimed for a more modest increase to 2 megabytes. Initially, Bitcoin Classic garnered attention with around 2,000 nodes in 2016. While the project still has supporters, the broader crypto community has shifted focus to alternative options.

Bitcoin Unlimited

Since its launch in early 2016, Bitcoin Unlimited has maintained an air of mystery. The developers released code without explicitly defining the type of fork required. Bitcoin Unlimited distinguished itself by allowing miners to determine block sizes, with nodes and miners imposing limits on the size of accepted blocks, up to 16 megabytes. Despite some initial interest, Bitcoin Unlimited has largely struggled to gain widespread acceptance.

Segregated Witness

Segregated Witness (SegWit) was proposed by Bitcoin Core developer Pieter Wuille in late 2015. Its main goal was to reduce the size of Bitcoin transactions, enabling a higher volume of transactions to be processed simultaneously. Although SegWit was technically a soft fork, its introduction also inspired subsequent hard forks.

Bitcoin Cash

Bitcoin Cash emerged as a hard fork in response to SegWit, as certain Bitcoin developers and users aimed to avoid the protocol changes it introduced. This split occurred in August 2017 when Bitcoin Cash wallets began operating separately from Bitcoin transactions and blocks.

As the most prominent hard fork of the original crypto, Bitcoin Cash distinguishes itself by allowing eight-megabyte blocks and not adopting the SegWit protocol.

Bitcoin Gold

Bitcoin Gold was a hard fork that occurred in October 2017, following shortly after Bitcoin Cash. Its creators aimed to address mining centralization by enabling mining with basic graphics processing units (GPUs), as they believed the process had become too specialized and reliant on specific hardware.

One notable aspect of the Bitcoin Gold hard fork was a “pre-mine,” where the development team mined 100,000 coins after the fork. These coins were allocated to an endowment intended to develop and finance the Bitcoin Gold ecosystem. A portion of these coins were also set aside as payment for developers.

While Bitcoin Gold adheres to many fundamental principles of Bitcoin, it diverges in its Proof-of-Work (PoW) algorithm.

SegWit2x

Following the execution of SegWit in August 2017, developers sought to introduce an additional component called SegWit2x. This proposed hard fork aimed to increase the block size to two megabytes.

Initially scheduled for November 2017, SegWit2x faced opposition as several companies and individuals who had supported SegWit chose to withdraw their backing for the hard fork. One contributing factor was the inclusion of opt-in replay protection, which would have affected the types of transactions accepted by the new fork.

On November 8, 2017, the SegWit2x team announced the cancellation of the planned hard fork due to disagreements among previous project supporters.

Has Bitcoin Forks Changed the Network Positively?

There is no clear answer to this topic because some individuals might believe that Bitcoin is sufficient on its own, while others would argue that the blockchain has to be upgraded. Given that hard forks cannot be reversed, this topic is considerably more challenging to answer.

Numerous cryptos that make use of disruptive technologies have surfaced since the debut of Bitcoin in 2009. As a result, they may now offer quicker transactions, lower fees, and greater security. As a consequence, the effectiveness of Bitcoin is questioned when compared to some of these cryptos.

This is a major defense made by the “pro-fork.” But as was already mentioned, not all Bitcoin forks are successful. There is a lot of discussion about forks because some of them might be unstable and dangerous.

Users will ultimately decide whether or not to use a new Bitcoin fork. Some forks might provide functionality that the primary Bitcoin network does not, which some users may find appealing. Nonetheless, the first Bitcoin network continues to serve many users’ needs.