Bitcoin hard forks are created when new Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs) are introduced to address issues with Bitcoin’s network, such as transaction processing speed and transaction fees. These BIPs aim to introduce new features, but are only implemented if they receive activation threshold support, which is approximately 95% miner support.
If the BIP fails to reach this threshold, it can lead to a hard fork that creates a new version of Bitcoin, like Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Bitcoin SV (BSV), Bitcoin XT (BTCXT), and Bitcoin Gold (BTG). However, these hard forks often fail to achieve traction, and Bitcoin itself remains the most successful cryptocurrency.
While hard forks introduce security vulnerabilities and risk to the network, they also serve as a means to test new ideas and solutions, such as Segregated Witness (SegWit) and Lightning Network, which have helped Bitcoin scale and improve its performance.
Source
<p>The post The Evolution and Impact of Bitcoin Forks: Balancing Act, Scaling Solutions, and Market Volatility. first appeared on CoinBuzzFeed.</p>
