When a hard fork, a permanent divergence in a blockchain’s protocol that creates two separate chains. Also known as a chain split, it happens when developers or miners upgrade the network but some participants refuse to follow the new rules. This isn’t just a software update—it’s a vote. And when the vote splits, so does the blockchain.
Hard forks happen for real reasons: fixing security flaws, changing how transactions are validated, or even creating a new cryptocurrency. Bitcoin Cash was born from a hard fork of Bitcoin because people disagreed on block size. Ethereum Classic split off after the DAO hack, when the community couldn’t agree on whether to reverse the theft. These aren’t theoretical debates—they’re live networks with real money at stake. Every hard fork creates a new chain, and if you held coins before the split, you now own both versions. That’s why you need to know when one’s coming.
It’s not the same as a soft fork, a backward-compatible upgrade where old nodes still accept new blocks. Soft forks tighten rules without breaking compatibility. Hard forks loosen or change them—and that’s what makes them messy. Miners, exchanges, wallets, and users all have to decide: do you stay with the old chain or jump to the new one? Some chains die. Others thrive. The difference often comes down to community trust, not code.
What you’ll find here are real examples of hard forks in action: how they were triggered, who benefited, and what went wrong. You’ll see how they affected token prices, wallet support, and even legal status. No theory. No fluff. Just what happened, why it mattered, and how it changed things for people who held crypto at the time.
1 Dec 2025
Learn the difference between hard forks and soft forks in cryptocurrency - how they upgrade blockchains, when they split networks, and what it means for your coins. No jargon. Just clear facts.
