What is Soft Fork and Why is it Important?
One of the terms we hear frequently in the crypto money world is soft fork. So what is a soft fork and why is it important? In this article, we will try to answer these questions.
A soft fork is a technical change to a cryptocurrency protocol. This is a non-mandatory change that requires miners to upgrade their software and invalidates previously valid transactions on the chain. That is, after the soft fork, transactions that do not comply with the new rules are rejected, but transactions that comply with the new rules are accepted by miners using old and new software.
The purpose of a soft fork is usually to improve the security, efficiency or functionality of the protocol. For example, the soft fork called SegWit, which took place in Bitcoin in 2017, was made to increase the transaction capacity and solve a problem known as transaction unfortunate. With SegWit, some of the transaction data has been moved out of the block, thus fitting more transactions per block.
The advantage of soft fork is that not all miners or users have to update their software. This avoids splitting or bifurcation of the network. After the soft fork, miners or users using old software cannot make transactions that do not comply with the new rules, but they can make and accept transactions that comply with the new rules. This preserves the integrity of the network.
The downside of the soft fork is that sometimes it does not get the support of the majority of miners or users. In this case, the soft fork may fail or be rejected. For example, the Bitcoin Classic soft fork that took place in 2016 was made to increase the block size from 1 MB to 2 MB. However, this soft fork was canceled because it could not get enough support from the miners.
Soft fork is an essential tool for the development and improvement of cryptocurrency protocols. With a soft fork, the rules of the protocol can be changed, but the splitting or bifurcation of the network can be prevented. For the soft fork to be successful, the support of the majority of miners and users is required.