Hardfork
From BitcoinWiki
This is the approved revision of this page, as well as being the most recent.
A hardfork is a change to the bitcoin protocol that makes previously invalid blocks/transactions valid, and therefore requires all users to upgrade.
Any alteration to bitcoin which changes the block structure (including block hash), difficulty rules, or increases the set of valid transactions is a hardfork. However, some of these changes can be implemented by having the new transaction appear to older clients as a pay-to-anybody transaction (of a special form), and getting the miners to agree to reject blocks including the pay-to-anybody transaction unless the transaction validates under the new rules. This is known as a softfork.
To date, Bitcoin has never deployed a hardfork, but some altcoins have.
See Also on BitcoinWiki[edit]
Source[edit]
