You may also sometimes hear mention of a «soft fork», a change to the software protocol where only
previously valid blocks / transactions are made invalid.
The better option denotes soft forks or changes to app protocol where only
previously valid block transactions become invalid.
Not exact matches
A hard fork is a radical change to the protocol that makes
previously invalid
blocks / transactions
valid, or vice-versa, and as such requires all nodes or users to upgrade to the latest version of the protocol software.
With a hardfork, all participants must upgrade to the new protocol as
previously invalid
blocks and transactions are now
valid.
Originally, at least, the term referred to a change to the Bitcoin protocol that makes
previously invalid
blocks or transactions
valid.
Hard consensus forks render
previously invalid
blocks valid, and make non-upgrading nodes incompatible.
A change to the Bitcoin protocol that makes
previously invalid
blocks / transactions
valid, and therefore requires all users to upgrade.