Soft Fork

All computer software, including cryptocurrency blockchains, require software upgrades. There are two main types of blockchain upgrades, either a hard fork or a soft fork. Hard forks consist of significant blockchain and protocol updates and are very controversial since they are not compatible with the old chain. Soft forks can be thought of as minor updates to the blockchain and are backwards compatible with the old chain. There are two primary types of blockchain soft forks, miner-activated soft fork (MASF) and user-activated soft fork (UASF). A MASF occurs when the majority of cryptocurrency miners participate and enforce the new rules. A UASF occurs when the full nodes work together to enforce the chain’s new rules without miner support.