<p>A <strong>fork</strong> in <a href="/NewSite/encyclopedia/blockchain/" class="ency-link">blockchain</a> technology is a modification to the protocol that creates a divergence from the previous version of the network. It can be a soft fork, which is backward‑compatible and allows nodes running the old software to still validate new blocks, or a hard fork, which introduces incompatible changes and requires all participants to upgrade to remain on the same chain.</p>
<p>Forks are important because they enable protocol upgrades, governance decisions, and can lead to the creation of new cryptocurrencies; for example, the 2017 hard fork of Bitcoin produced Bitcoin Cash, while SegWit was implemented as a as