List of bitcoin forks

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Bitcoin forks are defined variantly as changes in the protocol of the bitcoin network or as the situations that occur "when two or more blocks have the same block height". [1] A fork influences the validity of the rules. Forks are typically conducted in order to add new features to a blockchain, to reverse the effects of hacking or catastrophic bugs. Forks require consensus to be resolved or else a permanent split emerges.

Contents

Forks of the client software

The following are forks of the software client for the bitcoin network:

Bitcoin XT
A fork initiated by Mike Hearn. The current reference implementation for bitcoin contains a computational bottleneck. [2] The actual fork was preceded by Mike Hearn publishing a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP 64) on June 10, 2014, calling for the addition of "a small P2P protocol extension that performs UTXO lookups given a set of outpoints." [src 1] On December 27, 2014 Hearn released version 0.10 of the forked client XT, with the BIP 64 changes. [src 2] It achieved significant attention within the bitcoin community in mid-2015 amid a contentious debate among core developers over increasing the block size cap. [3]
On June 22, 2015, Gavin Andresen published BIP 101 calling for an increase in the maximum block size. The changes would activate a fork allowing eight MB blocks (doubling in size every two years) once 75% of a stretch of 1,000 mined blocks is achieved after the beginning of 2016. [src 3] The new maximum transaction rate under XT would have been 24 transactions per second. [4]
On August 6, 2015 Andresen's BIP101 proposal was merged into the XT codebase. [src 4] [src 5] Bip 101 was reverted [src 6] and the 2-MB block size bump of Bitcoin Classic was applied instead.[ citation needed ]
The August 2015 release of XT received widespread media coverage. The Guardian wrote that "bitcoin is facing civil war". [3]
Wired wrote that "Bitcoin XT exposes the extremely social—extremely democratic—underpinnings of the open source idea, an approach that makes open source so much more powerful than technology controlled by any one person or organization." [5] Developer Adam Back was critical of the 75% activation threshold being too low and that some of the changes were insecure. [6]
On August 25, 2017, Bitcoin XT published Release G, which was a Bitcoin Cash client by default. [src 7] Subsequently, Release H was published, which supported the November 2017 Bitcoin Cash protocol upgrade, followed by Release I, which supported the May 2018 Bitcoin Cash protocol upgrade.[ citation needed ]
Bitcoin Classic
In its first 8 months, Bitcoin Classic promoted a single increase of the maximum block size from one megabyte to two megabytes. [7] In November 2016 this changed and the project moved to a solution that moved the limit out of the software rules into the hands of the miners and nodes. [8]
Bitcoin Unlimited

All three software clients attempt to increase transaction capacity of the network. None achieved a majority of the hash power. [9]

Intended hard forks splitting the cryptocurrency

Hard forks splitting bitcoin (aka "split coins") are created via changes of the blockchain rules and sharing a transaction history with bitcoin up to a certain time and date. The first hard fork splitting bitcoin happened on 1 August 2017, resulting in the creation of Bitcoin Cash.

The following is a list of notable hard forks splitting bitcoin by date and/or block:

Intended soft forks splitting from a not-most-work block

Intended soft forks splitting from the most-work block

Segwit

Taproot

Taproot is an agreed soft fork in the transaction format. The fork adds support for Schnorr signatures, and improves functionality of smart contracts and the Lightning Network. The fork was installed in November 2021. [10] The upgrade adds privacy features. [11] [12] Taproot includes Bitcoin Improvement Proposal numbers BIP340, BIP341, BIP342. [13]

Advantages:

Unintended hard forks

Two hard forks were created by "protocol change" definition:

Related Research Articles

A smart contract is a computer program or a transaction protocol which is intended to automatically execute, control or document legally relevant events and actions according to the terms of a contract or an agreement. The objectives of smart contracts are the reduction of need in trusted intermediators, arbitrations and enforcement costs, fraud losses, as well as the reduction of malicious and accidental exceptions.

Double-spending is a potential flaw in a digital cash scheme in which the same single digital token can be spent more than once. Unlike physical cash, a digital token consists of a digital file that can be duplicated or falsified. As with counterfeit money, such double-spending leads to inflation by creating a new amount of copied currency that did not previously exist. This devalues the currency relative to other monetary units or goods and diminishes user trust as well as the circulation and retention of the currency. Fundamental cryptographic techniques to prevent double-spending, while preserving anonymity in a transaction, are blind signatures and, particularly in offline systems, secret splitting.

Bitcoin (₿) is a decentralized digital currency, without a central bank or single administrator, that can be sent from user to user on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network without the need for intermediaries. Transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and recorded in a public distributed ledger called a blockchain. The cryptocurrency was invented in 2008 by an unknown person or group of people using the name Satoshi Nakamoto. The currency began use in 2009 when its implementation was released as open-source software.

Namecoin is a cryptocurrency originally forked from bitcoin software. It is based on the code of bitcoin and uses the same proof-of-work algorithm. Like bitcoin, it is limited to 21 million coins.

History of bitcoin History of Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, a digital asset that uses cryptography to control its creation and management, rather than relying on central authorities. Originally designed as a medium of exchange, Bitcoin is now primarily regarded as a store of value. The history of bitcoin started with its invention and implementation by Satoshi Nakamoto, who integrated many existing ideas from the cryptography community. Over the course of bitcoin's history, it has undergone rapid growth to become a significant store of value both on- and offline. From the mid-2010s, some businesses began accepting bitcoin in addition to traditional currencies.

Ethereum Open-source blockchain computing platform

Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain with smart contract functionality. Ether is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. Among cryptocurrencies, Ether is second only to Bitcoin in market capitalization.

Dash (cryptocurrency) Cryptocurrency

Dash is an open source cryptocurrency. It is an altcoin that was forked from the Bitcoin protocol. It is also a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) run by a subset of its users, which are called "masternodes".

Blockchain Distributed data store for digital transactions

A blockchain is a growing list of records, called blocks, that are linked together using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data. The timestamp proves that the transaction data existed when the block was published in order to get into its hash. As blocks each contain information about the block previous to it, they form a chain, with each additional block reinforcing the ones before it. Therefore, blockchains are resistant to modification of their data because once recorded, the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without altering all subsequent blocks.

Hyperledger is an umbrella project of open source blockchains and related tools, started in December 2015 by the Linux Foundation, and has received contributions from IBM, Intel and SAP Ariba, to support the collaborative development of blockchain-based distributed ledgers. It was renamed Hyperledger Foundation in October 2021.

Ethereum Classic Open source blockchain computing platform

Ethereum Classic is an open source, blockchain-based distributed computing platform featuring smart contract (scripting) functionality. It supports a modified version of Nakamoto consensus via transaction-based state transitions executed on a public Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

Bitcoin Unlimited (BU) is a full node implementation for the bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash networks. The Bitcoin Core client, from which Bitcoin Unlimited is forked, has a hard coded one megabyte block limit; Bitcoin Unlimited differs by allowing users to signal which block size limit they prefer, find the limit having a majority consensus and automatically track the largest proof-of-work, regardless of block size. However, if a block greater than one megabyte in size is accepted by Bitcoin Unlimited and rejected by nodes with a block size limit, a fork of the network will occur, resulting in two separate blockchains with Bitcoin Unlimited nodes following the chain with the largest proof-of-work.

Lightning Network "Layer 2" payment protocol that operates on top of a blockchain-based cryptocurrency

The Lightning Network (LN) is a "layer 2" payment protocol layered on top of a blockchain-based cryptocurrency such as bitcoin or litecoin. It is intended to enable fast transactions among participating nodes and has been proposed as a solution to the bitcoin scalability problem. It features a peer-to-peer system for making micropayments of cryptocurrency through a network of bidirectional payment channels without delegating custody of funds.

Bitcoin scalability problem Scaling problem in bitcoin processing

The Bitcoin scalability problem refers to the limited capability of the Bitcoin network to handle large amounts of transaction data on its platform in a short span of time. It is related to the fact that records in the Bitcoin blockchain are limited in size and frequency.

Bitcoin Cash Cryptocurrency that is a fork of Bitcoin

Bitcoin Cash is a cryptocurrency that is a fork of Bitcoin. Bitcoin Cash is a spin-off or altcoin that was created in 2017.

Segregated Witness, or SegWit, is the name used for an implemented soft fork change in the transaction format of Bitcoin.

A cryptocurrency wallet is a device, physical medium, program or a service which stores the public and/or private keys for cryptocurrency transactions. In addition to this basic function of storing the keys, a cryptocurrency wallet more often also offers the functionality of encrypting and/or signing information. Signing can for example result in executing a smart contract, a cryptocurrency transaction, identification or legally signing a 'document'.

EOS.IO is a blockchain protocol based on the cryptocurrency EOS. The smart contract platform claims to eliminate transaction fees and also conduct millions of transactions per second.

In blockchain, a fork is defined variously as:

Tron (cryptocurrency) Open-source blockchain computing platform

TRON is a decentralized, open-source blockchain-based operating system with smart contract functionality, proof-of-stake principles as its consensus algorithm and a cryptocurrency native to the system, known as Tronix (TRX). It was established in March 2014 by Justin Sun and since 2017 has been overseen and supervised by the TRON Foundation, a non-profit organization in Singapore, established in the same year. It is originally an Ethereum-based ERC-20 token, which switched its protocol to its own blockchain in 2018.

References

Source code

  1. ↑ "bips/bip-0064.mediawiki at master · bitcoin/bips · GitHub". GitHub.
  2. ↑ "bitcoinxt/bitcoinxt". GitHub.
  3. ↑ "bips/bip-0101.mediawiki at master · bitcoin/bips · GitHub". GitHub.
  4. ↑ "Implement hard fork to allow bigger blocks · bitcoinxt/bitcoinxt@946e3ba". GitHub.
  5. ↑ "bitcoinxt/bitcoinxt". GitHub.
  6. ↑ "2MB block size bump by dgenr8 · Pull Request #117 · bitcoinxt/bitcoinxt". GitHub.
  7. ↑ "Bitcoin XT Releases" . Retrieved 17 June 2018.

Other references

  1. ↑ Antonopoulos, Andreas (2017). Mastering Bitcoin: Programming the Open Blockchain (2 ed.). USA: O' Reilly media, inc. p. Glossary. ISBN   978-1491954386.
  2. ↑ Maria Bustillos (25 August 2015). "Inside the Fight Over Bitcoin's Future". The New Yorker. Conde Naste. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
  3. 1 2 Alex Hern (17 August 2015). "Bitcoin's forked: chief scientist launches alternative proposal for the currency". the Guardian. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
  4. ↑ Tim Hornyak (21 August 2015). "Bitcoin XT debate overshadowing growth opportunities". PC World. IDG. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
  5. ↑ Cade Metz (19 August 2015). "The Bitcoin Schism Shows the Genius of Open Source". WIRED.
  6. ↑ Everett Rosenfeld (20 August 2015). "Bitcoin splits: Will it break, or be better than ever?". CNBC. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
  7. ↑ Paul Vigna (17 January 2016). "Is Bitcoin Breaking Up?". Wall Street Journal.
  8. ↑ "Classic is Back". Archived from the original on 2017-02-02. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  9. ↑ Ammous, Saifedean (2018). The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 227, 228. ISBN   9781119473893 . Retrieved 23 April 2018.
  10. ↑ Sigalos, MacKenzie (2021-06-09). "Bitcoin just got its first makeover in four years". CNBC. Retrieved 2021-06-15.
  11. ↑ Kharif, Olga (2021-06-15). "Bitcoin to get more privacy features in Taproot update, making it harder to trace payments". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2021-06-23.
  12. ↑ Locke, Taylor (2021-06-14). "7 key things that happened in crypto over the past week". CNBC. Retrieved 2021-06-23.
  13. ↑ "All Bitcoin Improvement Proposals, including BIP340". 2021-06-01 – via GitHub.
  14. ↑ March 2013 Chain Fork
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