Fork

In the world of open-source non-proprietary software code, a fork refers to an upgrade or enhancement to an existing software application or protocol. Many of the world’s largest cryptocurrency blockchains, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, are 100% based on open source code. When major changes to these blockchains are released, they are referred to as “Hard Forks”. For a hard fork to take effect, the majority of miners and mining hash must switch over to the new software or else the fork will fail to take effect.