Day 8 of #web3gloassary
H: Hard fork, Hashing, HODL, Hash Rate
Lessgo🚀🚀
Do you know how BCH started? It was forked from Bitcoin in 2017
When fundamental changes are made in a blockchain, it can result in a hard fork, leading to the formation of a separate chain with different rules which are no longer backward compatible with earlier blocks.
It results in the validation of blocks and transactions that were previously invalid, or vice-versa.
It’s a permanent divergence because the nodes in the new iteration can’t communicate and reach a consensus with the nodes of the previous version.
Ethereum vs Ethereum Classic
After a blockchain forks, any wallet that had the original cryptocurrency will have equal amounts on both networks.
Suppose you had 5 BTC before fork, you’ll have 5 BTC on both the networks post the fork
Hashing is a common term we hear when discussing blockchain tech
It’s the process of transforming an input of any size into a corresponding fingerprint of fixed-length. It’s the backbone of blockchain tech, that allows data & transactions to be verified and stored in a secure way
SHA-256 is the Bitcoin hash algorithm
How well and fast you can generate these hashes matter!
Let's understand hash rate 👇👇
It’s a measure of the total combined computational power used by a proof-of-work cryptocurrency network to process transactions in a blockchain
Simply put, it’s a measure of how fast a cryptocurrency miner's machines can complete these computations
Before any new transactional data can be added to the next block in the chain, miners must compete using their machines to guess a number. Essentially, miners try to produce..
.. a hash that is lower than or equal to the numeric value of the target hash, by changing a single value called "nonce". Every time the nonce is changed, a completely new hash is created.
For e.g.
Hash for testnet is: 9afbce9f2416520733bacb370315d32b6b2c43d6097576df1c1222859d91eecc
Changing one letter "festnet" gives a completely different hash:
5ee4470f8d81b3e461aa776cdcfc156ea1c6d389edd7e8e2bdff5c11161a6ebb
But why does hash rate even matter?
Its an important metric for assessing the strength and security of a blockchain network. The higher the hashrate, the harder it becomes for malicious agents to disrupt the network.
‼️A fall in hashrate makes the network more vulnerable!‼️
Let’s wrap up with a jargon
HODL- Hold On for Dear Life
The term actually started as a typo on an old forum, Bitcointalk.org , where a user explained that he was HODLING his bitcoin as the price dropped. The misspelling quickly caught on and is still used today.
Thats a wrap for Day 7!
I’ll be sharing information on the new vocabulary of the web for next 30 days.
It’s like a free crash course on the terms and methodolgies in Web3.
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