Author: Mike Hearn 2015-09-28 17:14:15
Published on: 2015-09-28T17:14:15+00:00
Softforks are designed to benefit non-mining full nodes as they will follow the majority chain. However, this is not a benefit per se but rather a description of what the software will do. The consequences of following a chain that is not being checked properly can be dire, resulting in SPV level security and potentially calculating a corrupted ledger. For example, if someone made a transaction that spent somebody else's money to themselves, it could go unnoticed and eventually lead to incorrect data being acted upon. While the miner majority will eventually correct and uncorrupt the ledger, by then it may be too late. On the other hand, in a hardfork, there is no mechanism to stop the old fork, potentially leading to two chains co-existing for an extended period of time. The duration of the divergent state depends on how fast people upgrade and is unaffected by the rollout strategy used.
Updated on: 2023-06-10T23:16:56.867426+00:00