A Case Against Hard Forks
Hey Jesspeculators
I know the cryptocurrency market is seen as running on innovation; it's the buzz word thrown around to death along with the word blockchain, even when many of these projects aren't blockchains by definition. One of the more contentious decisions in the cryptocurrency space is the idea of a hard fork.
The hard fork is a protocol change that requires the consensus of the network. If consensus is achieved, all stakeholders be moving on a chain with the new changes. If consensus is not achieved, the chain will be split into two as network participants support the chain they prefer.
The vast majority of hard forks tend to be chain upgrades with consensus, but every so often, we see disagreements such as:
- Ethereum (ETH) V Ethereum Classic (ETC)
- Bitcoin (BTC) V Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
- Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCHA) V Bitcoin Satoshis Vision (BSV)
I know many of us to get hot and heavy at the sound of a hard fork either due to a token airdrop or upgrades that could make the token price go up, but do we ever ask are hard forks always the option to take.
Hard forks can create split forks
As mentioned earlier, hard forks can result in two projects instead of one. This splits the network effect of the project, the capital invested in the project, the community supporting the project and affects transaction volumes and liquidity of the chain.
Hard forks add layers of complexity
It doesn't take a genius to understand that the more you split off a chain, the more complicated it becomes. You can see that with Bitcoin forks; you can see it with ETH forks; you can even see it with EOS and STEEM forks. The more you fork, the more complicated the ecosystem becomes, as these chains don't tend to talk to one another.
This reduces the effectiveness of the project to cut through the noise and attract investment and grow its user base.
Hard forks make blockchains less immutable
Yes, each chain is protected by the operators supporting it but splitting the support however which way means the chain is less decentralised, relies on fewer people for consensus, and makes it more vulnerable to centralised control or changes that are in the economic interest of the inner circles.
Are hard forks bad?
No, I don't think hard forks are inherently bad; I think that projects are far too quick to use them instead of trying to find consensus or find solutions that don't require base layer protocol changes.
What many see as a weakness of Bitcoin to be reluctant to hard fork, I think is a good thing. If you're a small chain with a few million in market cap, sure, hard fork your arse off, have at it, innovate, break things.
If you're Bitcoin, trying to be sound money, you need to show that you're not willing to change. That's how you retain faith in the system; you provide security in its monetary policy.
Sure, you can improve the security and bugs, but wholesale changes to a blockchain don't always mean a step forward for the project.
Have your say
What do you good people of HIVE think?
So have at it my Jessies! If you don't have something to comment, "I am a Jessie."
Let's connect
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They do seem to be temporary fixes to larger scale problems, you seem to have a point here
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I know all chains are different and some require hard forks more than others, I get that security is also a must sometimes to hardfork, but gosh I see so many forks these days and its like updating inflation, distribution, adding base layer features, speeding things up, slowing things down, its all over the place
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It's the new gold rush, people are taking what they see is successful and rapidly try to mirror it. Forks will eventually slow down because new innovations will occur, but the copying of a popular trend is something that may never go away in human nature.
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I completely agree and as long as their is demand for get rich quick schemes and a a supply of suckers there will be forks and copies willing to take their money off their hands 🙌
We can warn people but the best way is to her rekt in the end you never forget that lesson
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Exactly, I've been invovled with scams before as well and though they weren't for big money, it was annoying to be involved with. I think that learning through experience is the only way
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Yeah i’m not so hot on hard forks. The time they hard forked over to hive from steem, they came to a consensus that I should not receive my hive jist because i voted for someone they disagreed with. I didn’t know, i thought JS was just here to help us. Oh well, cost me 100k! Seems unfair, it wasn't my fault at all that all that stuff went down, if anything it was binance's fault. It still makes me sorta mad, but nothing I could do but move on. Nice post!
If people want to have their own money with their own rules by all means, that's great and they can include and exclude anyone they want but if we want something that can be global money, we need something that is so hard to change in anyone favour.
I also thought JS would do something and pump our bags lol, but since he took over STEEM not much has happened other than making it a TRON faucet
Im all for experimenting and learning that's why I am here, but for me Bitcoin is where I store my value.
Totally, with Bitcoin you know 100% without a doubt that you will never piss off the wrong Oligarch and get your money confiscated. Yeah I agree any group can decide the way they distribute the new token. I made peace with this a while back. I had to start all over stacking again. In the end I now have the same amount that I feel I was supposed to. JS ended up pumping the bags over there anyway, but I had to leave that place after that happened because I was not sure if he would do the same thing to me and I'd lose everything. He ended up doing that and blanking out a lot of big whales accounts, that is no way to run a business. Thanks!!
So what do you think about the next HIVE hard fork? I think its moving in the right direction for the most part.
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I honestly don't keep track really, I don't put too much consideration into it because I just like using the apps and services. Not too concerned with the rest like the price and all that, for that I have Bitcoin, this is just fun for me to mess around with
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I think there are a few posts about it but they are changing it so that you get max rewards if you vote within the 1st day and also there is a fee if you sell HIVE for HBD on the wallet market as the things that stand out the most to me.
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Thanks for the update, just seems like such a mission to keep up with all the changes, so I don't bother anymore! For me learning about Bitcoin is more than enough for my brain to handle
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I guess tweaking and changing a few things wouldn't be bad that's why I anticipate the fork, we're still testing for what will be best for hive.
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Yeah I get that this is a more experimental thing that's why I don't put much of my money in it, It can go titts up tomorrow with a bad fork or change. I prefer the security for my money on the hardest chain, I wouldn't even keep much on ETH
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Yeah I agree with this and I think even soft forks can be contentious issues let alone hard forks! I think the fewer forks you need the better for all involved. Splitting communities and investment as well as magnifying tribalism can leave a sour taste but if it helps innovation and trying out new experiments then crack on! Like you say, BTC has focused on doing one thing and doing it well, decentralised, immutable store of value.
Can't argue with that and when you focus, you have to make sacrifices these other chains want to be everything and nothing at the same time.
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Your points are so valid.. I feel sometimes hard forks bring about solid innovations like you earlier said. And if this is the case then it should happen but most times it doesn't always go this way
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If it is a solid innovation you would gain consensus, Bitcoin has had hard forks without a chain split before, its just really hard and that's a good thing you don't want every change put on chain. Sometimes these changes might seem good now but in the long run they actually shit
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I've never thought too much about it but I think
has to be a good thing but, I suspect, when hard forks happen there are a lot of egos in play that aren't really interested in consensus.
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I feel the same way, it's very hard to stay pragmatic when money is involved so I say take it off the table all together. If you disagree with something and feel that strongly fork the chain and see who wins, or build a second layer solution on-top of It
If we just look at how many times BTC and EOS have been forked how is anyone supposed to know what they should be using and why? I just see a lot of it as cash grabs more than innovating
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I'd have to agree that hardforks come with their own share of challenges, but at some points there are absolutely necessary. The good thing is, I don't think you hear about them happening like we did say three to five years ago. I think people have become much wiser about the potential pitfalls associated with hard forking and therefore they are more cautious these days.
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I do agree that the forks have slowed down but just look at doge how many copies popped up to try and copy that “success” and if we look at forks like Bitcoin ABC and Litecoin cash it’s really become a joke to fork
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I guess I didn't realize that there were that many forks of Doge out there. I don't really pay attention too much apparently! I just try to focus on the established tokens. I guess it makes sense that people would be so confused...
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