hard fork

noun

A rule change of a blockchain such that the software validating according to the old rules will see the blocks produced according to the new rules as invalid; the new blockchain resulting from such a split.

“Bitcoin Cash is a hard fork of Bitcoin.”

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Meanings

nounhard fork (plural hard forks)

plural hard forks

  1. businessA rule change of a blockchain such that the software validating according to the old rules will see the blocks produced according to the new rules as invalid; the new blockchain resulting from such a split.

    Bitcoin Cash is a hard fork of Bitcoin.

    2 more examples

    Some are pushing for a “hard fork” of Ethereum, which would undo the damage by effectively asking 51% of the currency’s users to agree to pretend that it had never happened in the first place.

    2017 November 8, Alex Hern, “'$300m in cryptocurrency' accidentally lost forever due to bug”, in The Guardian

    As it pertains to blockchain technology, a hard fork is an upgrade to mining software that makes a change to the network that requires the participation of all miners.

    2020, Lorne Lantz, Daniel Cawrey, Mastering Blockchain, O'Reilly, →ISBN, page 61
Cite this entry
APA

hard fork. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hard%20fork

MLA

“hard fork.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hard%20fork. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hard fork,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hard%20fork.

Source: hard fork on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.